ED files chargesheet against Pakistani who made Indian government IDs for Bangaldeshis in Kolkata
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet under the anti-money laundering law against a Pakistani man, living as an Indian in Kolkata, after illegally procuring as many as five vital government IDs including Aadhaar, voter card and passport.
He was laundering funds by making "fake" Indian IDs for Bangladeshis who came here and through other illegal activities like hawala, the federal probe agency said in a statement on Monday (June 16, 2025).
The ED said it has submitted the prosecution complaint against the man named Ajad Mallik alias Ahammed Hossain Azad and Azad Hossain before a special Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) court in Kolkata on June 13.
The court has taken cognisance against the "Pakistani national" and fixed a date for hearing, it said.
The ED, which carried out raids in this case in April, had then said in a press statement that Mallik was a Bangladeshi national. It arrested Mallik under the anti-money laundering law and the probe brought to light that he was indeed a Pakistani national.
The ED case stems from a West Bengal Police FIR against Mallik and unidentified others for violation of the Foreigners Act of 1946.
"Probe found that the man was a Pakistani national illegally living in India," the ED statement said.
"A Pakistani driving licence dating back to 1994 was recovered from his mobile phone bearing the name Azad Hossain and featuring the photograph of Ajad Mallik alias Ahammed Hossain Azad. It listed his father's name as Mumtaz-Ul-Haque and a permanent address in Pakistan," the ED said.
It said the driving licence recorded his date of birth as 14/08/1971 and it was issued by the Licensing Authority in Hyderabad, Pakistan.
In order to "conceal" his true identity, the ED said, the man adopted the alias "Ajad Mallik" and procured multiple Indian identity documents like Aadhaar, PAN (permanent account number issued by the income-tax department) card, driving license, voter ID and passport by submitting "forged" and "fabricated" documents, as per the ED.
The agency found that the man operated a "hawala" network to facilitate illegal cross-border remittances between India and Bangladesh, collecting payments in cash and UPI, before transferring equivalent amounts to Bangladesh using platforms like 'Bkash', an online financial transaction platform of Bangladesh.
"He was also involved in illegal money transfers and document forgery and was actively involved in facilitating the preparation of visas and passports for Bangladeshi nationals seeking to travel to countries like Dubai, Cambodia and Malaysia," the ED said.
The Pakistani man collected payments in Bangladeshi Taka, U.S. Dollar, and Indian Rupee and deposited these amounts into his own bank account or transferred them to the accounts of associates engaged in fraudulent visa or passport processing, the ED alleged.
He played a "significant" role in "fraudulent" activities carried out at certain forex changers (full-fledged money changers) based in Kolkata, in which "huge" cash deposits were declared as proceeds from legitimate foreign currency sales to customers but were actually "proceeds of crime" linked to "unlawful" activities including the creation of "fake" Indian identities for Bangladeshis to obtain passports, the ED said.
The ED had said in April that the man has two sons — Osama Bin Azad and Omar Faruk — and his wife, Maymuna Akhter, residing in Bangladesh and are citizens of that country. It said the man "frequently" visited Bangladesh to meet his family.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
UAE rule, wary I-T to deter dodgy crypto deals
Mumbai: In the lane to launder money, the skill to move cryptos to control companies and properties in Dubai has been honed over the past few years. But treading that alley would soon become tougher. Dual, albeit unrelated, developments in India and the UAE would force money movers to devise new tricks. First, Income tax (I-T) officials, hunting for illicit homes of Indians over the past six months, now strongly suspect that some property purchases were made with cryptocurrencies; second, a new regulatory regime in the Middle East country, would soon end payment in cryptos, other than stable coins, to freely buy goods and services. "When Indian residents use crypto to purchase real estate, they bypass Indian banking channels and FEMA scrutiny. But, under the new UAE regulations (expected from August), merchants would no longer accept crypto directly. Only entities licensed by the UAE Central Bank would be allowed to convert stablecoins to AED after collecting full KYC. While this framework ensures the buyer's identity is recorded, it remains unclear whether such data would be shared under the India-UAE tax treaty," said Purushottam Anand, founder of the law firm Crypto raiding a leading UAE developer having roots in Mumbai and clients across India, a northern office of the I-T department found that more than 460 buyers in the 650-odd property deals have no record of having remitted money through banks to acquire the properties. According to findings which were shared with other I-T centres two months ago, the arm of the UAE realtor which brokered the deals was aided by a network of 86 sub-brokers who later shared details with the tax office. According to tax circles, some of the clients had paid in cryptos, probably under the belief it would go untraced. Earlier this year, the department had found that hundreds of mule accounts were opened by a few persons in Kerala to deposit cash, use the money to buy cryptos -either on local platforms or through peer-to-peer transactions-and then move the coins to other wallets before encashing the them in UAE, or buying assets like properties, or transferring them to third parties. "When digital assets move from exchanges to P2P platforms or private wallets, monitoring becomes difficult, creating opportunities for illegal activities such as ransomware attacks, laundering, tax evasion, and potentially terrorist financing. Although the exchanges are required to report 'suspicious transactions', including withdrawals, with the Financial Intelligence Unit-India, such risks can be further addressed through stricter enforcement of TDS provisions, i.e. Sections 194S or 195, ensuring tax compliance for all crypto transactions, whether conducted on or off exchanges. Additionally, specifying the reporting entities and the format for disclosures under Section 285BAA will improve traceability," said Ashish Karundia, founder of the CA firm Ashish Karundia & Co. 'PAYMENT TOKEN REGULATIONS' The new 'Payment Token Services Regulation' lays down the rules and conditions established by the UAE Central Bank for granting a licence or registration for payment token services-which include payment token issuance, token conversion, and token custody and transfer. Under the rules no merchant or anyone in the UAE selling goods or services can accept a virtual asset unless it's a dirham payment token issued by a licensed issuer. Also, a bank cannot act as a payment token issuer. UAE is working on Dirham-linked stable coin (like USDT or Tether which is pegged to the dollar)."This would have implications for India which has close economic and financial ties with the UAE. By bringing digital assets such as payment tokens under a structured licensing and anti-money laundering framework, the regulation adds a layer of safety and transparency to cross-border digital financial flows. For Indian individuals and businesses engaging in the UAE's digital economy, on one hand this means greater clarity, reduced risk of fraud, and alignment with global best practices; on the other hand, the clear prohibition on anonymous crypto instruments like privacy tokens reinforces the global trend toward traceable and regulated digital transactions. This is something India is also actively pursuing through its own financial intelligence mechanisms. This would deter transactions in property, high value luxury products bought by Indians in UAE using crypto tokens," said Siddharth Banwat, partner at CA firm Banwat & Associates dealers said the UAE rules are not entirely fool-proof as coins can be routed through platforms in multiple jurisdictions whose cooperation would be vital to spot the trail. But the very presence of licensed intermediaries collecting and storing information would deter money movers.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
After Ahmedabad crash, Air India faces slew of passenger complaints on social media
New Delhi: Just a week after the devastating crash of Air India flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to London, the national carrier is now facing intense backlash from passengers over poor service, damaged baggage, mishandled refunds, and alleged harassment, all of which are surfacing on social media platform X. On June 12, Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, claiming 275 lives that included 241 passengers and crew and 34 people on the ground, as the plane had crashed into a hostel of a medical college. The crash, one of the worst in Indian aviation history, has put the airline under a harsh spotlight. And now, passengers are voicing their long-standing frustrations, painting a troubling picture of Air India's service standards. A user named Qamar Saquib posted that on June 18, while travelling from Patna to Jeddah via Delhi on Air India flights AI-2634 and AI-991, he discovered that his gold (5.5 grams) was missing from his luggage upon arrival in Jeddah. 'I filed a complaint immediately at the Jeddah airport,' he wrote, tagging the airline for accountability. Jasmeet Singh raised a separate issue, accusing Air India of not honouring a refund promise made by airport staff. 'It's a clear case of cheating. The staff was insensitive to my mother, a senior citizen, who was travelling with my sisters,' he wrote. In another disturbing post, a user named Sakina alleged that Air India fraudulently cancelled her grandparents' tickets from Mumbai to Bengaluru, both of whom are heart patients. 'On June 9, I received an email saying the tickets for June 26 had been cancelled through the website — something I never did,' she claimed. The refund provided was a mere Rs 1,400 for tickets worth Rs 15,000, and customer service has reportedly gone silent. 'This is a scam,' she wrote, calling the act 'a breach of security' and 'fraudulent.' Yash, another flyer, said he was mentally and physically harassed when he was forced to switch seats multiple times on flight AI-558, despite pre-booking seat 12D. 'I have back problems and was shifted from 12D to 16C, and then to 29D,' he said. Passenger Rajneesh Khullar, tagging the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA, expressed frustration over broken baggage and zero response from Air India. 'We got our bags after a week. One was broken. I have sent over two dozen emails and filed a claim (Case #23700866), but there has been no response,' he wrote. Parul Kumar, who flew on AI-309, called out the airline for 'super dirty' toilets, non-functional screens, and unresponsive attendants, despite paying AUD 1,500 for the tickets. 'Very pathetic service,' she said bluntly. Another flyer, who goes by AR, shared a video from flight AI-810 and requested Air India to change the 'dirty and worn-out tapestry' on its aircraft 'for the sake of Tata Group's reputation and in memory of late Shri Ratan Tata.' These complaints are now adding to the growing pressure on Air India, which is already under scrutiny after the deadly June 12 crash. The national carrier, which was expected to undergo a revival under the Tata Group's ownership, is now facing renewed criticism not only for technical and safety lapses but also for widespread service failures.
Deccan Herald
an hour ago
- Deccan Herald
SC lawyers controversy: ED directs investigators to not summon advocates in case against clients
The statement from the federal probe agency came in the wake of the lawyer-client privilege linked controversy that erupted after the ED issued back-to-back summons to senior Supreme Court lawyers Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal for giving legal advice to Care Health Insurance Limited (CHIL) on the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) given to Rashmi Saluja, former chairperson of Religare Enterprises.
