By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Aug 4:
Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday conducted searches at 12 locations in Delhi and Gurugram (Haryana) involving P K Munjal, Chairman & MD of M/s Hero Motocorp Limited and M/s Hero Fincorp Limited and employees of M/s Salt Experience and Management Pvt. Ltd (SEMPL) and seized foreign currency worth Rs 25 crore.
The 69-Year-Old Billionaire Businessman, Pawan Munjal is the promoter of India’s largest Two-Wheeler automobiles manufacturing company.
As per the statement issued by ED on Thursday, investigations were initiated under Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 based on the Prosecution Complaint filed by Directorate of Revenue intelligence (DRI) under section 135 of the Customs Act, 1962 before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), New Delhi. DRI is an arm of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
As per the prosecution complaint, Munjal and Amit Bali, Hemant Dahiya, K R Raman and others of SEMPL(a “third party service provider company), “illegally exported foreign currency equivalent to about Rs 54 crore to various countries during the period 2014-2015 to 2018-2019, prohibited under the rules.
Investigation revealed that one of the key associate of P K Munjal, managed to illegally export approximately Rs. 40 crore worth of foreign currency to meet the expenses of his personal and business foreign trips. Besides, SEMPL secured foreign exchange to the tune of Rs 14 crore in the name of its officials/employees viz. Hemant Dahiya, Mudit Aggarwal, Amit Makker, Gautam Kumar, Vikram Bajaj and Ketan Kakkar over and above the annual permissible limit of USD 2,50,000/- in various financial years. SEMPL also drew Foreign Exchange/ travel forex in huge amount in the name of other employees, who did not even travel abroad.
During the search proceedings, the ED seized foreign currency, cash, gold and diamond jewellery (including foreign origin gold) worth Rs, 25 crore along with certain incriminating documents including digital evidences, hard disks, mobiles etc from the residential and business premises of P K Munjal, Hemant Dahiya, K R Raman, M/s Hero Motocorp Limited (New Delhi) and M/s Hero Fincorp Limited (New Delhi). In March, Income Tax officials had carried out a search at the offices of Hero MotoCorp as well as Munjal’s residence.