ED seizes ₹2.54 crore in shipping company raids, including wads in washing machine

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said it has seized Rs 2.54 crore "unexplained" cash, including a part of it hidden in a washing machine, during searches in various cities linked to a case of alleged violation of the foreign exchange law.

The premises of companies like Capricornian Shipping and Logistics Pvt Ltd and its directors Vijay Kumar Shukla and Sanjay Goswami and associated entities Laxmiton Maritime, Hindustan International, Rajnandini Metals Limited, Stawart Alloys India Pvt Ltd, Bhagyanagar Limited, Vinayak Steels Limited, Vashishta Constructions Pvt Ltd and their directors/partners Sandeep Garg, Vinod Kedia and others were searched, it said in a statement.

The central agency did not say when these searches were executed at various locations in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Kurukshetra in Haryana.

It also did not mention where the cash kept in the washing machine was recovered.

The action was undertaken based on "credible information" that the entities were involved in sending foreign exchange outside India "on a large- scale" and made "suspicious" outward remittances amounting to Rs 1,800 crore to Galaxy Shipping and Logistics Pte Ltd. and Horizon Shipping and Logistics Pte Ltd, Singapore.

Both these overseas entities are managed by a person named Anthony De Silva, it said.

Capricornian Shipping and Logistics Pvt Ltd, Laxmiton Maritime along with its associates made outward remittances to the tune of Rs 1,800 crore to the Singapore-based entities in the garb of bogus freight services, imports and layering them through a web of complex transactions with the help of shell entities like Neha Metals, Amit Steel Traders, Triple M Metal and Alloys and HMS Metals.

During the search, unexplained cash amounting to Rs 2.54 crore, part of which was hidden in a washing machine, was found and all of this amount has been seized apart from various "incriminating" documents and digital devices.

A total of 47 bank accounts have been frozen as well, the ED said.