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Five accused, including a company, have been convicted by a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for illegally manufacturing narcotics in a factory premises in Gujarat,
According to a press note issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Principal District and Sessions Judge and Designated Special Judge (PMLA), Ahmedabad, AC Joshi convicted the five accused, including Sakha Organics in Vadodara, for using the premises to manufacture methamphetamine, a narcotic drug.
After the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized methamphetamine from the four accused as well as the factory premises, investigations conducted by ED revealed that one Kirit Rasiklal Shah availed a loan of ₹66.70 lakh from the Gujarat State Finance Corporation (GSFC) by mortgaging the factory premises of Sakha Organics Ltd. Major repayments were done in 2008 through demand drafts from various banks/persons.
The ED press note stated: “During that period, another accused Xie Jing Feng, a Canadian national, had paid ₹4 crore to Shah for the production and manufacture of methamphatamine. The factory premises, being leased out of the proceeds of the crime, were attached.
Further, Shah, having no legal source of income, had purchased a land at Vadodara in 2008 for ₹4.45 lakh in three cash instalments; hence, this property purchased out of the proceeds of the crime, along with one car in the name of Jagdish Vaidya and deposits in bank totalling ₹71 lakh were attached under the PMLA.”
The accused have been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and have been fined ₹5 lakh each.
In case the convicts fail to pay the fine, they will undergo a simple imprisonment of additional five years.
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