No money-laundering case made out against producer Sachin Joshi, says PMLA court

A special court has observed that actorproducer Sachin Joshi was not directly or indirectly involved in the moneylaundering case linked to citybased firm Omkar Realtors and DevelopersSpecial PMLA judge M G Deshpande had on Monday granted bail to Joshi who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate ED on February 14 last year in the caseThe 37yearold actorproducer is currently out on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court on medical grounds The detailed order was made available on TuesdayThe court in its order stated that it appears that no money laundering case is made out against the accusedThe ED has claimed that a loan of Rs 410 crore was fraudulently acquired by Surana Developers Wadala LLP a sister concern of Omkar Realtors and Developers Private Limited ORDPL by falsely increasing the number of slum dwellers and FSI floor space index for a redevelopment projectOut of Rs 410 crore an amount of Rs 330 crore was laundered into the sale building of Omkar Group and an amount of Rs 80 crore approx was laundered through Sachin Joshi and his Viiking Group of companies under the guise of services and investment the agency had allegedHowever the court after perusal of documents placed on record and arguments put forth by Joshis lawyer Abad Ponda said that primafacie it appears that the applicant was not iquestdirectly or indirectlyiquest involved in dealing with proceeds of the crime as defined under the relevant provisions of the PMLATherefore as argued by Counsel Ponda primafacie it appears that there are certain business transactions between the applicant his group companies with ORDPL and their group companies These transactions have absolutely no nexus with Rs 410 crore the court saidThe bank entries relate to such other transactions having no nexus with proceeds of the crime Hence no primafacie case of money laundering is made out against applicant Joshi the judge saidThe court notes that there were absolutely no satisfactory bank statements or any other document to show that a single rupee Joshi had received from ORDPL account with YES BankJoshi is the son of JMJ group promoter and businessman J M Joshi who is into gutka and pan masala manufacturing and hospitality business Joshi has acted in Jackpot and a few other films and produced some films as wellApart from Joshi the chairman of Omkar Relators and Developers Kamal Kishore Gupta 62 its managing director Babulal Varma 51 have also been arrested in the case The duo are currently in judicial custodyThe central agencys case is based on a 2020 FIR of the Aurangabad police against Gupta and Varma on the charges of cheating and diversion of loan funds of Rs 410 crore taken from Yes Bank for the redevelopment of Anand Nagar Slum Rehabilitation AuthorityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever