Enforcement Directorate summons Misa Bharti in PMLA case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to RJD MP Misa Bharti after it recently conducted raids against her and her husband in connection with a Rs 8,000 crore money laundering case.

Bharti, daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has been asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case here tomorrow, officials said today.

She has also been asked to bring along certain documents, including those related to her personal finances, they said. Her husband Shailesh Kumar is also expected to be summoned.

On July 8, the central probe agency had raided three Delhi premises of Bharti, Shailesh and a firm allegedly linked to them in the money-laundering probe involving shell companies.

The ED had also arrested Rajesh Agarwal, a Chartered Accountant allegedly linked to Bharti, who provided accommodation entries (black funds) of about Rs 60 lakh to Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited.

The searches, they said, are part of investigations to unravel these links which allegedly routed black money using the shell companies in question.

Shell companies are firms set up with nominal paid up capital, high reserves and surplus on account of receipt of high share premium, investment in unlisted companies and no dividend income or high amount of cash-in-hand.

The ED is the third central body probing the alleged financial irregularities by the Lalu Prasad family after the CBI and the Income Tax department which recently attached benami assets worth about Rs 180 crore (market value) in its investigation against them.