The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon on allegations of getting over Rs. 60 crore in trashed notes recycled.

The accused had got the cash exchanged through Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha and Kotak Mahindra Bank branch manager Ashish Kumar, who have already been arrested.

The manager was arrested on Wednesday. According to the Directorate, Mr. Tandon had paid Rs.13 crore to him and his associates as commission to recycle Rs.38 crore in demonetised notes.



The cash deposited in the accounts of the bank’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg branch in the national capital was converted into 84 drafts. Soon after the fraud was detected, all the drafts were cancelled and the money transferred to the Income-Tax Department.

Earlier, the investigating agencies had seized Rs.13.5 crore in cash from the lawyer's premises.

While Mr. Tandon has purportedly claimed that the entire money belongs to him, the agency is probing to determine whether there were others also who tried to get the cash exchanged through him.

The ED probe has revealed that entry operators had been used to deposit the cash in the Kotak Mahindra Bank accounts. One such entry operator, Om Prakash Goel, was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch about a week ago.

Goel had allegedly floated a large number of shell companies to convert black money into white. He was also involved in raising fake bills on commission to help other businessmen evade sales tax, said an official. #casansaar (The Hindu)