Koda aide arrested at Mumbai airport
The CEO of Balaji Bullion Manoj Punamiya, who is alleged to be the frontman of former chief minister of Jharkhand Madhu Koda in his multi-crore scam was arrested from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Saturday night. Immigration officials arrested Punamiya as there was a lookout notice pending against him. The police has handed custody of Punamiya over to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) which is investigating the scam along with the Enforcement Directorate.
“Punamiya was trying to take an international flight, but was arrested by our men as there was a lookout notice pending against him. We have handed him over to DRI officials,” said Rajvardhan Sinha, deputy commissioner of police, special branch I, Mumbai police. The Balaji Group — Balaji Universal Trade and Balaji Bullion — was central to Koda’s operations to siphon off the money he made by issuing mining licences post-September 2006.
Based in Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar with a small office at Nariman Point, Punamiya allegedly helped Koda and his associates to launder money by providing them with the import-export cover they needed.
Investigators say Koda zeroed in on Punamiya through his political connections. In fact, Koda’s associates Binod Sinha and Sanjay Chowdhury are directors of Balaji Bullion. Punamiya, through his companies, allegedly made cash deposits of Rs 650 crores in the Zaveri Bazaar branch of the Union Bank of India between late 2006 and 2008. All the transactions into this account are worth Rs 990 crores. Punamiya had earlier sought anticipatory bail from the high court following which several summons were sent to him by the ED to appear before them, but Punamiya managed to evade the summons and remained untraceable.
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