New Delhi: The Special Court on Thursday took cognisance of prosecution complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against journalist Upendra Rai before Special Judge (PMLA), Patiala House, New Delhi on August 6 in a money laundering case for an amount of Rs. 29,58,09,570.
In this case, Upendra Rai had adopted a different modus operandi to launder the ill-gotten money.
Rai was involved in extortion of huge amount of money from different companies and corporate houses.
He took undue advantage of his connections with several government officials, to gain access to confidential information available with them about the penal proceedings being contemplated against various defaulters, at times in advance.
After having received references from his connections in government agencies in respect of different prospective entities, Rai used to gather confidential information to finally blackmail them to extort money. He also threatened to tarnish their image by publishing adverse reporting about them in media.
After bringing them to his terms, Rai forced his targeted victims to execute a sham consultancy agreement with him to legitimise and project the proceeds of his crime or properties involved in money laundering as untainted money.
Rai insisted different companies to transfer monies in his account through banking channels against the cash he supplied to those companies. He entered into an agreement for consultancy services and issued false invoices to give genuine and legal shape to those transactions.
Rai further received a huge amount of money from the shell companies/proprietorship. The individuals and shell companies exist only on paper. They are not engaged in an operable business. These shell companies/individuals are controlled by entry operators. Upendra Rai received huge amount through the entry operators from the shell companies/individuals in his account or in the account of his family members against the cash provided by him.
By adopting these modus operandi, he projected the tainted money as untainted and laundered an amount of Rs.
29,58,09,570 and used it to acquire various properties in his or in the name of his family members and also used it to repay the loans taken from financial organizations to acquire some other properties.
Earlier, Rai was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 8 and is in judicial custody till now. (ANI)