A Chennai court on Wednesday convicted K Liakath Ali, an importer and an alleged Close aide of late DMK minister KC Mani’s son Mani Anbazhagan, and sent him to jail for seven years in a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on Ali. If he fails to pay the fine, he will have to undergo one-year imprisonment.
The court has also ordered the confiscation of Rs 1.76 crore which was attached by the ED in the form of a fixed deposit.
ED INITIATED MONEY-LAUNDERING PROBE IN 2017
The ED had initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Central Crime Branch-I (CCB-1), Chennai in March 2017.
The financial probe agency, during its investigation, found that Ali was part of the gang operating with complete anonymity and was involved in sending the proceeds of crime under the guise of permissible merchandise imports, without making corresponding imports into the Domestic Tariff Area(DTA), by using the forged import documents as genuine.
Ali was arrested on April 3, 2017 for making foreign outward remittance of USD 27.86 lakh (equivalent INR 18.66 crore) through Indian Bank’s Thousand Light Branch in Chennai for his role in opening a current account in the name of Galaxy Impex by submitting forged identity documents under the fake name of ‘WaseemLiakath Ali’ without disclosing the beneficial owner either within the country or outside the country and end-use in the recipient nation.
After being arrested, Ali remained incarcerated during trial for 33 months on account of the failure to meet the conditions for grant of bail before all judicial forums.
The ED filed a chargesheet on June 6, 2017 and charges were framed by the court in December 2019.
During the trial, the digital evidence collected by the ED during its investigation was adduced as admissible evidence.