Pune businessman has at least 10 bank accounts in Dubai, claims ED

After the ED informed the Bombay HC about the extent of his undisclosed and unauthorised banking transactions in India and abroad, the court has directed Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale to submit details of all his Indian and foreign bank accounts within a week.

After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the Bombay High Court about the extent of his undisclosed and unauthorised banking transactions in India and abroad, the court has directed Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale to submit details of all his Indian and foreign bank accounts within a week.

To probe the Bhosale case, the ED had sent a team of sleuths to Dubai last month which has since returned and submitted a confidential report to the Bombay High Court. Officials said the team was carrying letters of authorisation for disclosure of transactions of a few bank accounts in Dubai but returned with confirmed information about several more accounts, about which Bhosale had given no information.

The agency had earlier approached the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to find out that hefty financial transactions of Bhosale figured in several Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) compiled by it. At least 10 bank accounts of the businessman are in the ABN AMRO Bank and Habib-Zurich Bank, some of which are being described as “subsidiary” accounts.

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This, thus, belies Bhosale’s claims that he had closed all his bank accounts in Dubai following his arrest in May 2007.

The ED already has a FEMA case against Bhosale registered soon after his arrest and questioned him about the source of funds to purchase shares to the tune of Rs 500 crore for which payments were made from accounts in HDFC Bank in New Delhi.

But this could be the tip of the iceberg since a FEMA violation of Rs 5 crore has already been calculated for the cash deposits in one of his ABN AMRO accounts in Dubai, which the ED had authorisation for.

The trail of Bhosale’s credit card transactions may now take the ED to Bahrain since it has been discovered that instead of Dubai, his Standard Chartered credit card accounts were located there.

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The Bombay High Court case follows Bhosale’s appeal for the return of his impounded passport.