The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday that it has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 4.09 crore belonging to Deepak Kumar, Ramesh Kadel, his relatives and his associates in a PMLA case lodged against Mumbai-based firm Yogeshwar Diamonds and others.

The attached properties include immovable properties and bank balance of one proprietorship concern, Naina Jewellers owned by Deepak Kumar.

The ED initiated investigation under PMLA against Yogeshwar Diamonds and others on the basis of an FIR registered by the Maharashtra Police in 2015, which was later transferred to the Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai Police.

The ED probe revealed that Yogeshwar Diamonds and others remitted funds on the basis of forged entries to companies based in Hong Kong.

Star Grace Limited was one such shell foreign entity which had received huge amount of illegal proceeds of crime through this modus operandi. Documents collected by the the ED proved that Deepak Kumar was the director and he was not responding to ED’s summons for the last few years.

On February 25, on his return from Dubai, Kumar was arrested by the ED. Presently, he is in judicial custody.

“Scrutiny of his and his firm’s bank accounts in India revealed that Kumar is part of a larger web of shell entities which are engaged in sending large amount of unaccounted funds to foreign shell entities in the guise of forged/fabricated bills of entry in the diamond trading business,” said an ED official.

Kumar was the authorised director of the Hong Kong company, but is not the ultimate beneficial owner of Star Grace Limited. As per the investigation done till date, it is established that Ramesh Kumar Kadel is the beneficiary of these funds who is absconding and not responding to summons by the ED. He is presently in Dubai.

The ED has carried out a fund trail investigation and found that dummy proprietors, directors and partners were appointed in the shell companies, who helped in laundering operations for commission.

The ED has identified the available assets of the main beneficiary, Kumar, and other proprietors of shell entities and issued the provisional attachment order.