ED attaches Rs 98 cr worth assets of actor Shilpa Shetty, husband Raj Kundra
New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached assets worth Rs 98 crore, including a bungalow in Pune and equity shares, of actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra as part of a money laundering investigation.
The case pertains to cheating of investor funds through use of Bitcoins.
The attached properties include residential flat in Juhu (Mumbai) presently in the name of Shetty and residential bungalow in Pune and equity shares in the name of Kundra, the federal agency said in a statement.
A provisional attachment order has been issued under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these properties worth Rs 97.79 crore, it said.
The money laundering case stems from FIRs of the Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against a company named Variable Tech Pte Ltd, Late Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj, Mahender Bhardwaj and number of agents, where it was alleged that they had collected huge amounts of funds in the form of Bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from gullible public with the false promises of 10 per cent per month return in the form of Bitcoins.
The promoters cheated the investors and have been concealing the ill gotten Bitcoins in obscure online wallets, the ED alleged.
Kundra, it claimed, received 285 Bitcoins from the mastermind and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi "s" Amit Bhardwaj for setting up Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.
Kundra is still in possession of 285 Bitcoins which are presently valued at more than Rs 150 crore, the ED said.
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Hit by sexual abuse allegations, ex-PM Deve Gowda’s son Revanna tries to find remedy in rituals
Holenarasipura (Karnataka) (PTI): Smoke billowed as ‘Havan’ (fire rituals) flames raged in the scorching summer at JD(S) MLA and former Karnataka Minister H D Revanna’s residence here on Wednesday.
Conspicuous was a piece of paper pasted on the wall of his house.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru before leaving for Holenarasipura, Revanna said the SIT has pasted a notice on his house.
Noting that he has no clue about the content of the notice, he said he will cooperate with the authorities.
“I have the strength to face these conspiracies. I will face it (investigation). There is no need to bother. I did not do anything wrong. I am prepared for any investigation and will fight it in a legal manner,” Revanna said.
Rejecting all the allegations, he said, "I will not speak about it now.”
Meanwhile, the SIT has formed three teams to probe the case.
Revanna, the Holenarasipura JD(S) MLA, is the son of former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda and elder brother of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.
Prajwal is seeking a re-election from Hassan from the JD(S), which is an alliance partner of the BJP in Karnataka.
Just before the elections, a huge cache of explicit videos and photographs, allegedly belonging to him have gone viral in the social media, following which the Karnataka government constituted the SIT on the request of Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary.
A case has been registered against Revanna and Prajwal at Holenarasipura on a complaint by their former cook and relative for allegedly sexually harassing her. She alleged that Prajwal made video calls to her daughter and spoke in an objectionable manner, which forced her to block him.
Since morning, priests were busy performing rituals at Revanna's residence in Hassan district to "ward off the adversity" that has struck their family.
Revanna’s trust in Gods, Goddesses, rituals and astrology are well known.
Once the JD(S) MLA was seen holding lemons in his hand during a public event on the stage. When asked about it, he said lemon has the quality to ward off any type of spell cast on a person.
Sometime he also was seen walking barefoot as part of a vow to fulfill his wishes.
When he was the Public Works Minister in the coalition government of Congress-JD(S), which was led by his brother Kumaraswamy, he travelled 350 km to and from Holenarasipura after an astrologer had advised him not to stay in his own house in Bengaluru as it would bring him bad luck, a source close to Revanna said.
One cannot miss out a broad ‘Tilak’ on his forehead, a garland of Rudraksh Rosary around his neck and rings on his fingers studded with precious stones.
