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ED approaches court seeking SFIO documents in CMRL money laundering case

ED approaches court seeking SFIO documents in CMRL money laundering case

CBI widens probe into ₹661 crore fund scam

The CBI has conducted searches at six locations in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Delhi-NCR in connection with an alleged Rs 661 crore fraud involving the siphoning of government funds from departments of the Haryana government and the Chandigarh administration, officials said on Sunday. The searches were carried out on Friday at premises linked to senior Haryana cadre public servants and Noida-based Vipam Consultancy Pvt Ltd and its director as part of an ongoing probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds parked with IDFC First Bank and AU Finance Bank, an official statement said.Also read: IDFC First Bank fraud was isolated case involving collusion: KPMG According to the agency, the fraud affected eight departments of the Haryana government and two departments of the Union Territory of Chandigarh - Municipal Corporation Chandigarh and Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST)."During investigation evidences have surfaced suggesting that the public servants had colluded with bank officials and had facilitated in opening of accounts, transfer of funds and subsequent diversion thereof," the statement said. The agency alleged that the public servants received undue advantages for facilitating the transactions and failing to act against the irregularities. The investigating agency also alleged that Vipam Consultancy Pvt Ltd received proceeds of crime in its bank account, which were later transferred to the personal account of its director. "Incriminating documents, digital devices, property documents and other relevant material were seized during the search operations," the agency said. The probe stems from one case taken over from the Haryana State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau and two cases originally registered by the Economic Offences Wing police station in Chandigarh.Also read: CBI files first chargesheet in Haryana Rs 504 crore fund diversion caseThe cases relate to alleged criminal conspiracy, misappropriation of government funds and related offences committed in connivance with bank officials and public servants, the agency said.The CBI said it has already filed its first chargesheet before a special court in Panchkula detailing the alleged role of public servants from the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd and Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad.The chargesheet also outlined the alleged modus operandi used to siphon off government funds parked with the IDFC First Bank and AU Finance Bank, it said. The investigation is continuing and additional chargesheets will be filed against other accused found involved in the case, it added.

Unseal mosques, examine documents of other places of worship: Arunachal Muslim body

The All Arunachal Pradesh Masjid Welfare Committee says action against unauthorised religious institutions should be fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory across all faiths

Kufos proposes Kerala Blue Economy Council

The proposal formed part of two policy documents handed over by the Kufos to Fisheries Minister Abdul Gafoor during his first official visit

Accused can't be denied access to documents forming part of chargesheet: Supreme Court

Section 207 of the CrPC deals with the supply of a copy of the police report and other documents to the accused

SC: Accused cannot be denied chargesheet documents

'Let 2 Bangladeshis stay for money': Delhi cops probe Malviya Nagar hotel owner for trafficking

Delhi Police is investigating Lovkesh Bajaj, linked to a deadly Hauz Rani fire, for suspected involvement in an international human trafficking racket. He allegedly used medical tourism as a front to smuggle foreigners into India, having previously been arrested for facilitating forged documents for a Bangladeshi family.

SC: Can’t use OSA to deny accused access to documents relied on by prosecution

The Supreme Court has ruled that an accused's right to a fair trial includes access to prosecution documents, even if classified under the Official Secrets Act. The court ordered the government to provide highly confidential documents to retired Major General V.K. Singh, facing charges for revealing secrets in his book, emphasizing fair trial rights.

Delhi hotel fire:Owner’s past arrest over Indian IDs for Bangladeshis under scanner

The owner of a Malviya Nagar hotel where a fire killed 21 people was previously arrested in 2025 for allegedly facilitating the illegal stay of Bangladeshi nationals. Lovkesh Bajaj admitted to knowingly allowing individuals to use his address for fraudulent Indian identity documents in exchange for money. Police are now investigating his role in the deadly hotel fire.

Fake Passports, Forged Documents, Tihar Stay: Hotel Owner's Past Under Spotlight In Delhi Fire Case

Bajaj admitted that he had knowingly allowed the accused individuals to use his residential address for obtaining Indian identity documents in exchange for money.

BnB owner held in fire case was arrested for helping Bangladeshis get Indian docs

Police said Lavkesh Bajaj allowed a Bangladeshi woman, her daughter, and grandson to use his address to obtain documents for illegal stay in India

The curious case of Rajesh Exports: Massive revenues, meagre profits

Mumbai: It is India's fourth biggest company by revenue, but the managing director of precious metals trader Rajesh Exports (REL) apparently doesn't know how and from where it gets the biggest chunk of the revenue, show the findings of a regulatory investigation.In its investigation report, the Securities and Exchange Board of India observed allegedly unscrupulous activities by REL's promoters, such as accounting irregularities and siphoning off of company funds into personal accounts, and also pointed out lapses by its auditors. The regulator said the company and its auditors were non-cooperative."The acts of REL constitute a deliberate device, scheme and artifice to mislead and defraud investors dealing in the shares of REL by portraying an inflated and misleading picture of its operational scale, revenue and financial health," Sebi observed in its report.The company, eponymously named after its chairman Rajesh Mehta, is accused of committing an elaborate financial fraud that includes dressing-up of revenues of ₹15.15 lakh crore over the years, personal gold trades covered up as corporate sales and phoney gold mine investments of ₹1,035 crore, according to the interim report.REL denied the charges of misdeeds. In a press release Thursday, the company said the revenues stated in its financials were correct and that the confusion arose because of a mix-up between Ebitda and revenue numbers at Swiss refiner Valcambi SA, an indirect subsidiary.Sebi has not made any adverse observation with regard to earnings, the company said, claiming that the regulator has only observed suspicion with regard to revenues which was primarily because of confusion over the Valcambi numbers.Numbers don't add upIn fiscal 2025, REL reported consolidated revenue of ₹4.23 lakh crore against a profit after tax of just ₹95 crore, translating into a net margin of barely 0.02%. The year before, on ₹2.8 lakh crore revenue, profit was ₹336 crore.Experts who have studied the Sebi report and the company's annual reports say the numbers did not add up. The business appeared to be operating at margins that were not merely thin but structurally negligible, they said."It looks like a case of pass-through accounting. There is no value creation. It was 'flow of gold' being booked as revenue," said a leading auditor on the condition of anonymity.Sebi, which began the investigations in March 2024 following a shareholder complaint about suspected accounting malpractices, said it found that about 97-99% of REL's consolidated revenues were attributed to its overseas subsidiaries, principally Valcambi. But Valcambi's own accounts, audited by KPMG SA, recorded only processing fees that were about ₹3,027 crore across five years.Valcambi refined gold on behalf of clients and never took ownership of the precious metal or recognised the value of gold as revenue in its books. Yet, Global Gold Refineries AG (GGR), the parent of Valcambi that had no independent operating business, recorded gross revenues running into hundreds of crores by including the gross value of gold that actually belonged to others, according to the Sebi report.Rajesh Exports, which owns GGR through a Singapore subsidiary, used those unaudited figures in its financial statements, significantly bumping up the company's revenue, it said.In its press release, REL said: "The core observation in the order is with regard to the misreporting of the revenues. This has emerged primarily due to confusion because Sebi has considered the Ebitda of Valcambi instead of revenue hence it has stated that there is a difference of about 97% in the revenue.""There is no reason for any listed entity to inflate revenue and maintain the earnings, this will only reduce the margins of the company, which would be adverse to the company," it said.Senior management in the darkThe senior management of REL told regulators that most of them were in the dark about the company's overseas operations and only the promoter, Rajesh Mehta, dealt with those activities."Valcambi SA does not have any gold mine on its own," managing director Suresh Gowda was quoted in the Sebi order as saying. "It refines the raw gold purchased by it from various entities, whose names I do not recollect, as these things are exclusively handled by Rajesh Mehta, chairman of REL. I have never interacted nor involved with any subsidiary/step-down subsidiary of REL, as these were exclusively taken care of by Rajesh Mehta," he told the investigators, as per the order.According to the report, REL booked ₹11,487 crore in sales between 2021-22 and 2023-24 to Affluence Shares and Stocks, a broker that made up to 66% of the company's standalone revenue for that period. But Affluence, in formal depositions to the regulator, said it had not done any business with REL.Following the transaction trail, the investigators found out that the transactions were personal gold derivative trades executed by promoter Mehta using his own brokerage account and then recorded in the company's books as corporate sales, the order said.The investigators also found that Mehta used corporate funds. As per the Sebi observations, bank records show REL transferred ₹338.90 crore directly into Mehta's personal accounts between April 2020 and September 2025.Unlike in the case of Nirav Modi or Gitanjali Gems, who are accused of bank fraud, Rajesh Exports doesn't appear to have borrowed big from banks or through sale of bonds, according to regulatory filings.The company's market cap was just over ₹3,000 crore, as per Thursday's closing share price. LIC (10.8%) and Bridge India Fund (8.46%) are its major institutional shareholders."It is striking that, even at a peak market capitalisation of ₹25,000 crore, the company did not hold any analyst calls, a basic expectation for a listed company of that scale," said Shriram Subramanian, founder and managing director of InGovern Research Services, a corporate governance advisory firm.The regulator in 2024 hired BDO India Services to investigate. But the forensic audit faced problems at almost every stage of the investigation. It was denied access to ERP systems and was not provided a complete journal dump, preventing independent verification of transactions recorded in the books, according to the regulatory report.And the company declined to share subsidiary-level records with the investigator, citing Swiss data protection laws, limiting auditors largely to reviewing financial statements prepared by the management itself rather than underlying evidence, it said.What's also come under the scanner was the conduct of statutory auditors for the last few years: CA PV Ramana Reddy, the proprietor at PV Ramana Reddy & Co, and CA PL Venkatadri, partner at BSD & Co.The company's FY24 and FY25 annual reports, filed with the stock exchanges, carry an unqualified opinion from BSD & Co, which concluded that the financial statements presented a "true and fair view" in line with Indian Accounting Standards.The company's FY24 Directors' Report noted that the statutory and secretarial auditors had made no qualifications, reservations or adverse remarks.The Sebi report said for over five months, the auditors sat on the regulator's request for missing documents and statements.Emails sent to both audit firms did not elicit any response.REL closed 5% lower at ₹103.92 Thursday on the NSE. The shares are down from their peak of ₹1,028.40 on February 6, 2023.

Unauthorised mosques sealed in Arunachal’s capital

Itanagar Capital Region officials said notices were sent to religious functionaries on January 30 to obtain permits and produce documents relating to statutory clearances

Ex- Trump NSA John Bolton to plead guilty over retaining classified documents: Report

John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump, is reportedly set to plead guilty to one felony count of illegally retaining classified documents. This plea agreement comes with a fine exceeding $2 million, as part of a case brought against him earlier this year in Maryland.

Supreme Court pulls up Gujarat Police over two-decade delay in land fraud probe

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by a man whose father had lodged a criminal complaint alleging that four individuals forged his signature and executed fabricated property documents while he was away on a Haj pilgrimage in 2002; the Bench directed the police to complete the investigation within six weeks

Who is Sarthak Sidhant? Class 12 student stirs storm with CBSE tender allegations

Sarthak Sidhant’s detailed blog on CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, based on an analysis of official tender documents linked to the digital evaluation of Class 12 answer sheets, has triggered wider questions on transparency and procurement processes. The issue has now reached political circles, with opposition leaders, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, sharing the blog and demanding accountability

'Blacklist' Vendor Clause From CBSE Tender Removed In 2025, Documents Show

CBSE issue is under scrutiny due to concerns about on-screen marking (OSM) system

Thinking of filing for divorce? Here are the documents you should collect first

Navigating divorce can be overwhelming, but thorough documentation is essential for pivotal decisions regarding alimony, child custody, and property distribution. Be prepared by collecting marriage records, identification, financial statements, property titles, and any relevant evidence. For custody disputes, focus on child-related documents. Getting organized in advance paves the way for a less stressful legal journey.

ED arrests 4 in Rs 2,004-crore fraud case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four promoters of a real estate group in connection with a money laundering probe into an alleged Rs 2,004-crore homebuyer fraud that affected more than 19,000 buyers and investors.The accused, Avdhesh Kumar Goel, Rajnish Mittal, Atul Gupta and Vikas Gupta, are promoters/directors of Earth Infrastructures Ltd. They were arrested on June 1 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), an official statement said on Tuesday.The accused were produced before a special PMLA court in Delhi, which granted the agency five days' custody for interrogation, it said.Read More: Signature Global commits Rs 1,200-1,500 crore for land acquisitions in FY27According to the federal agency, the group collected around Rs 2,004 crore from more than 19,425 homebuyers and investors by promising timely delivery of residential and commercial units and assured returns.The agency alleged that its probe found approximately Rs 467 crore had been diverted or siphoned off through various group entities and related concerns and individuals."Despite receipt of substantial funds from the buyers/investors, the projects were either left incomplete or possession of units was not handed over, thereby causing wrongful loss to the homebuyers and investors," the ED said.The probe further revealed that a part of the alleged proceeds of crime was used for acquisition of movable and immovable assets in the names of various entities and individuals connected with the promoters and directors of the group, it said.The investigation was initiated based on five FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police against Earth Infrastructures Ltd, its directors and related entities under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code.The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has also filed a criminal complaint under Section 447 of the Companies Act against the promoters and directors of the group.Read More: Amazon adds 10.6 acres to Mumbai data centre campus in Rs 125 crore dealEarlier in April, the ED had conducted searches at premises linked to the Earth Group across Delhi-NCR.During the raids, the agency seized cash worth about Rs 6.30 crore, jewellery valued at around Rs 8.78 crore and property documents relating to more than 100 immovable properties estimated to be worth over Rs 100 crore.

TMC Signature Forgery Row: How Bengal’s LoP Appointment Triggered CID Probe, And A Political Storm

West Bengal’s alleged signature forgery scandal has intensified as CID probes claims that TMC MLAs’ signatures were fabricated in Assembly documents.