Tamil Nadu: Enforcement Directorate gets Parasmal Lodha's custody for 5 days

Chennai: The Principal Sessions Court on Thursday sent Kolkata-based real estate baron Parasmal Lodha, 60, arrested on a charge of laundering money, to the custody of Enforcement Directorate for five days.

When the custody petition came up for hearing before the principal sessions judge, M. Nazir Ahamed, the Enforcement Directorate personnel produced Lodha, accused of assisting sand mining baron J. Shekar Reddy in converting new currencies worth several crores of rupees, before the court amidst tight security.

The counsel for Lodha submitted that the ED foisted case against Lodha. The affidavit filed by ED has several loopholes and his name was not mentioned in the FIR. The ED officials forcefully took his statement in New Delhi. Based on this, the ED registered a case against him under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Opposing this, special public prosecutor for ED, N. Ramesh submitted that Lodha’s custody under ED is required to unearth several vital information regarding money laundering and assisting Sekhar Reddy to convert a huge quantity of old currency notes.

On conclusion of arguments, the Judge, M. Nazir Ahamed sent Lodha to five days custody under ED.