NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Kolkata-based businessman Paras M Lodha here in connection with a money laundering case relating to alleged conversion of over Rs 25 crore scrapped currency notes with new ones.
Officials said he was arrested by the agency here late on Wednesday after grilling him for hours.
Lodha was first intercepted by the agency sleuths at the Mumbai airport based on a Look Out Circular while he was seeking to flee the country.
The arrested businessman is connected to Shekhar Reddy and Rohit Tandon cases, also related to illegal exchange of demonetised currency notes.
Meanwhile, the agency on Thursday produced Lodha before a designated court here that granted seven-day custody to the ED.
Lodha has been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)after the agency took cognisance of FIRs registered against Reddy and Tandon.
The Reddy case relates to Chennai and the Income Tax department had unearthed unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore. Likewise, the IT department and the Delhi Police had seized Rs 13.5 crore from a law firm run by lawyer Rohit Tandon. The CBI had arrested Reddy on Wednesday.
Following a directive from the Government, multiple agencies have joined hands and are working in a synchronised manner to probe these high-profile cases and unravel the entire nexus between public servants and businessmen involved in illegal exchange of currency notes.