After meat exporter Moin Qureshi, a former CBI director is likely to be arrested, sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have said. The former CBI director had, according to ED sources, extended “illegal help” to Qureshi in lieu of monetary consideration.
Sources close to the former CBI director have denied any wrongdoing on his part and have claimed that he was being victimised.
“During the course of our investigation, Qureshi corroborated many facts and evidence that we have collected in the last one year. It indicates that he was using his excellent network in the political and bureaucratic circles to ‘help’ people for monetary consideration. He also accepted that he shared a close relationship with the former CBI director after we presented evidence like BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) messages exchanged between the two and statements of witnesses,” a senior source in ED close to the investigation told The Sunday Guardian.
The Sunday Guardian has accessed a copy of the case summary sheet filed before the court by the ED that reads as follows: “During the course of investigation, certain facts have emerged which constitute omission and commission of certain acts on the part of certain public servants holding high positions in public office in collusion with Moin Akhtar Qureshi; thereby, huge amount of illegal money was found to have been transacted.”
“The witnesses have given their statement that they have delivered Rs 1.75 crore to Qureshi and his associates for helping a Bangalore-based friend who had a CBI case against him. The money was meant for the then CBI director,” the case summary note of ED reads.
“The BBM messages were exchanged between Qureshi and the accused persons involved in other criminal cases and also the persons who wanted to seek undue favours from the CBI by getting them off the hook,” the summary note added.
ED sources have also said that they have identified almost a dozen businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians who allegedly helped Qureshi in running hawala trade and were a part of a liaison network in the country. The ED is likely to question these people soon.
The ED, which had been probing the role of Qureshi for quite some time, took cognizance of an FIR by the CBI registered this year which had mentioned the ex CBI director’s name for allegedly accepting money and providing undue favour to Qureshi. Since 2015, the ED is probing Qureshi for allegedly running a hawala network and violating provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Qureshi was arrested on 25 August and sent to five-day ED custody by a trial court the next day for thorough investigation in the case against him and others. The court later gave a four-day extended custody on 31 August.
The I-T Department is also probing Qureshi under the new Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, as the probe has led the department to a few foreign assets owned or held by the meat exporter and his family, allegedly in an illegal manner as they were not declared or reported to Indian tax authorities. The case emerged after the I-T Department first carried out searches against Qureshi and his firm in February 2014.