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ED arrests one in Rs 2,200 crore PMLA case

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 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said that it has arrested Pavitra Pradip Walvekar, the promoter director cum CEO of Kudos Finance and Investment Private Limited, an NBFC company in connection with a prevention of money laundering case.

His arrest was made at Hyderabad by a team of ED officials. The probe agency produced him before a special court and said that he wasn’t needed for further interrogation. After this the court remanded Pavitra to 15 days judicial custody.

The ED has been conducting money laundering investigation against a number of Indian NBFC companies which are in the business of instant personal loans via mobile apps.

The ED has found that various fintech companies backed by Chinese funds have made agreements with these NBFC companies for providing instant personal micro loans of term ranging from 7 days to 14 days.

Ms Kudos NBFC ‘purportedly’ engages FinTech (digital lending partners) Companies as a Service Provider to assist in identifying prospective customers, verifying their eligibility, collection of information/documents, conducting due diligence, collecting pre-disbursement documents, arranging execution of the loan agreement, assisting with collections and recovery of principal and interest payments and attending service requests/product related queries for the retail loans offered by the Company.

Although it is projected that the NBFC is engaging Fintech companies for the above activities, but in reality they are allowing the Fintech companies to misuse the valuable NBFC license of Kudos.

“Ms Kudos has a paltry Net Owned Fund (NOF), but it is taking huge amount as ‘security deposits’ and then opening separate Merchant ID (MID) with payment gateways for each fintech app and then depositing this security in the MID of the respective fintech app,” said an ED official.

Kudos company has no mobile app of its own. It is not involved in the lending business at all. It has miniscule staff and is blindly allowing fintech companies to operate at the back of MOU between self (NBFC) and Fintech Mobile app companies. Thus, the entire lending operation is being done by the fintech app from its own funds. Kudos is only lending its license and the fintech apps are the ones acting like the real NBFCs and doing end to end micro lending and reaping majority of the benefits. In return Kudos is taking a commission without doing any due diligence or hard work.

“Entire decisions regarding fixation of interest rate, processing fee were taken by fintech companies and these companies were operating on the basis of instructions from Chinese beneficial owners. They capture customers’ data by getting access to their mobile contacts, media. In order to obtain more profits and to maintain high recovery rate, their call centres resorted to harsh recovery measures by using abusive language to entire phone list and contacts and misuse of social media privileges. Unable to bear the level of harassment, certain people have committed suicides,” said an ED official.

The official said that at the time of crediting the loan amount, the apps would deduct 15-25 per cent of the amount as processing fee and on the remaining amount they were charging very high interest rate.

“Fund trail investigation done by ED revealed that despite having NOF of only Rs 10 crore, Kudos circulated loans over Rs 2,200 crore in its name and it was entirely funded by 39 fintech companies who are now not responding to summons and have shutdown their operations and are absconding,” said the ED official.

In the entire business, fintech companies have gained a total profit of around Rs 544 crore and Kudos has gained a profit of around Rs 24 crore.

This entire arrangement is in complete violation of the RBI guidelines on NBFCs and thus, the entire profit of Rs 568 crore is nothing but proceeds of crime.

The source of funds with the fintech companies is also suspect and is being investigated.

Despite repeated opportunities, Pavitra Pradip Walvekar was not revealing the real identity and beneficial owners of the 39 apps with whom they were in business for more than a year.

The ED has alleged that instead of cooperating with the investigation, he had been making active attempts to obstruct the free and fair investigation.

Crime

Mere recovery of blood-stained weapon matching deceased’s blood group not sufficient to prove murder: SC

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New Delhi, June 27: Upholding the acquittal of an accused, the Supreme Court has ruled that mere recovery of a blood-stained weapon bearing the same blood group as that of the deceased would not be sufficient to prove the charge of murder.

A bench of Justices Sandeep Mehta and P.B. Varale was dealing with a criminal appeal filed by the Rajasthan government challenging a judgment of the Rajasthan High Court, which had acquitted the respondent-accused of the offence of murder.

In its impugned order, a division bench set aside the judgment passed by the Additional Sessions Judge in December 2008, which had convicted the respondent for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 100, and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo 3 months simple imprisonment.

During the trial, the respondent was charged with the murder of Chotu Lal, which took place on the intervening night of March 1 and 2, 2007.

Initially, an FIR was filed against unknown assailants, and at a later stage, the respondent was arraigned in the case on the basis of suspicion and circumstantial evidence.

The prosecution led circumstantial evidence in the form of motive, alleging the respondent was having an evil eye on the wife of the deceased; recovery of the weapon of offence and the FSL report indicating that the blood group on the weapon matched with the blood group of the deceased (B +ve).

Contrary to the findings of the trial court, the Rajasthan High Court opined that the prosecution could not prove the complete chain of circumstances required to bring home the guilt of the accused in the case, which was based entirely on circumstantial evidence, and proceeded to acquit the respondent.

Concurring with the view taken by the Rajasthan HC, the Justice Mehta-led Bench said: “We find that the incriminating circumstances relied upon by the prosecution, i.e., the motive and the recovery of the blood stained weapon, even taken in conjunction cannot constitute the complete chain of incriminating circumstances required to bring home the charges against the accused.”

“The High Court seems to have overlooked the FSL report, which fact was stressed upon by learned counsel for the appellant (state government). However, in our view, even if the FSL report is taken into account, then also, other than the fact that the weapon recovered at the instance of the accused tested positive for the same blood group as that of the deceased (B +ve), nothing much turns on the said report,” it added.

The apex court, relying upon a previous judgment of the apex court, opined that mere recovery of a blood-stained weapon even bearing the same blood group of the victim would not be sufficient to prove the charge of murder.

It discarded the theory of motive, saying the evidence in that regard seems to be very vague and vacillating.

The Justice Mehta-led Bench added that the law is well settled by a catena of apex court decisions that in an appeal against acquittal, interference can only be made if the only possible view based on the evidence points to the guilt of the accused and rules out his innocence.

Dismissing the appeal of the state government, the Supreme Court said: “In the present case, we are duly satisfied that the prosecution failed to lead clinching evidence to bring home the charges. The only possible view is the one taken by the High Court, i.e., the innocence of the accused.”

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Crime

Kerala HC judge files complaint of theft at his residence, police probe on

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Kochi, 27 June: The Kochi police have received a theft complaint from Kerala High Court Judge, Justice A. Badharudeen, according to officials on Friday, stating that six sovereigns of gold were missing from his residence.

The complaint, which was filed on Thursday, mentions that the gold has been stolen from the judge’s bedroom. The police have registered an FIR under Section BNS 305.

What has surprised many is that the thief has decamped with gold from a high-security guarded house located in the heart of the commercial capital of the state.

The judge registered the complaint with the Kalamassery police under which his residence falls.

After the preliminary probe, the police are now planning to prepare a list of those who need to be spoken to, as this incident occurred in the bedroom of the senior judge.

More details are awaited.

The incident has raised concerns regarding the security situation in the state. The Congress-led UDF has been accusing the state government of failing to curb the crimes.

It has been found that Kerala is a haven for organised gangs hailing from neighbouring states who specialise in robbing homes, and the cases against non-Keralaite thieves are also on the increase.

According to information prepared by the home department, which was placed before the Assembly last year, it showed 192 cases of theft involving non-Keralites were registered in 2021, and the numbers have been steadily increasing. This rose to 360 in 2022.

In 2023, the number increased further to 519, and by September 2024, a total of 307 such cases were registered. But the image of the Kerala Police got a boost when over 1,350 thieves during this period were put behind bars.

However, with regards to the case being registered in the burglary at the home of a judge, the police appear to have a tough job ahead.

Likewise, with other crimes also on the increase, the Ernakulam Police have come out with a directive to landlords who are seeking to rent out their properties. The police have urged the landlords to get a police clearance certificate from the prospective tenants from their local police station where they stayed.

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Crime

Bengal BJP worker’s murder: Absconding man arrested by CBI after 4 years

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Kolkata, June 26: After four years, a prime absconding accused in the killing of a BJP worker, Abhijit Sarkar, in the 2021 post-poll violence was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday.

The arrested person was identified as Arun Dey, for whom the CBI had earlier announced a reward of Rs 50,000. He was one of the five main accused persons in the murder of Sarkar, a resident of the Kankurgachi area in North Kolkata, during the violence that broke out after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election.

Sources said Dey was finally arrested on Thursday from a secret hideout in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. However, further details on the matter are still awaited.

Four other prime accused persons in the case, namely Sukhdeo Podder a.k.a. Sukha, Gopal Das a.k.a. Vishal, Amit and Biswajit Das a.k.a. Bomba, are still absconding.

All five of them were identified as Trinamool Congress strongmen in the area and were also known as close confidants of the ruling party legislator from Belegahta Assembly constituency in North Kolkata, Paresh Paul and Trinamool Congress councillor in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Swapan Samaddar.

Paul has already been questioned by the CBI sleuths in this connection. However, his name was not in the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the matter, which angered the family members of the slain BJP worker.

To recall, Abhijit Sarkar was killed on May 2, 2021, soon after the results of the 2021 Assembly elections were declared, where Trinamool Congress bagged a landslide victory.

The CBI took over the investigation from the Kolkata Police following an order of the Calcutta High Court. In September 2021, a trial court in Kolkata declared the five accused absconders.

Thereafter, CBI declared a reward of Rs 50,000 on each of them. Finally, after over four years, one of the five accused and absconding persons has been arrested by the CBI sleuths. He might be presented at a special court in Kolkata later in the day, and the CBI counsel is expected to seek his custody for further interrogation, sources said.

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