:  Ten members of an inter-state gang were arrested on charges of trying to extort ₹15 crore to ₹20 crore from senior executives of Nippon Paints on the pretext of “settling” a fake Enforcement Directorate case.

This has prompted the ED to issue a statement in the public interest, requesting people not to fall prey to scamsters impersonating as their officials and check the authenticity of the summons and other documents issued by the anti-money laundering agency.  That can be done by scanning a QR code provided on each official paper, the ED said in a statement.

“The ED has evolved a fool-proof mechanism for issuance of summons for the recording of statements under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) as well as FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act),” it said.

“The summons approved by the competent authority are generated electronically and can be authenticated by a unique QR code mentioned on the summons,” the agency said.

Forged summons issued

The ED swung into action after getting to know from Mumbai- based, Nippon Paints which is originally a Japanese company, that its president and director have been summoned to depose before the agency in Delhi in a money laundering case registered against them.

The sleuths, after conducting an internal inquiry, realised that the conjob was done using “forged” summons.

The probe revealed that an “inter-state gang was active and targeting high profile persons and businessmen of the society and threatening them in the name of ED by sending them forged summons/notices,” the agency said. “The members of the gang (in this case) contacted officers of that company (Nippon Paints) and told them that they have good contacts with some officers of the ED and they could settle the matter for which they demanded ₹15-20 crore,” it pointed out.

A trap was laid and the gang members were asked to come to Delhi for negotiation.

After some hesitation, elaborated the agency, the gang members agreed to come to Delhi and a joint team of the ED and the Delhi Police arrested its kingpin, Akhilesh Mishra, and nine others.

Mishra’s associate Devender Dubey had allegedly threatened the Nippon executives to settle the matter or face arrest the next day, the ED said. At the time he was caught, Dubey was, interestingly, using a car that had government stickers on it and “pretended” to be an ED officer, they stated.

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