NEW DELHI: Meat exporter Moin Qureshi was briefly detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi on Saturday but was later allowed to fly to Dubai. Interestingly, the immigration authorities blunder led Qureshi to fly to Dubai. The airport authorities based on the lookout circular issued against him on request of Enforcement Directorate in a case of money laundering detained him but when Qureshi showed them court order in an income tax case to immigration officials, they just allowed him to fly.
The immigration department has initiated an inquiry into the blunder done by their official.
H he detained in the afternoon by the immigration department. The immigration officials informed the Enforcement Directorate about his detention. Even before Enforcement Directorate reached at the airport, Qureshi presented a court order in which there was no restriction on his flying abroad. The immigration officer checked for the veracity of the court order and allowed him to fly to Dubai.
But when the ED team reached the airport to take the meat exporter into custody, they were informed that he had been allowed to fly on the basis of a court order.
The immigration officer then found that the order was in connection with an Income Tax case and not in the ED case, prompting the authorities to order an inquiry.
According to airport officials, Qureshi told authorities that he has furnished a bond and got the court's nod to travel abroad even as he got a fax sent in this regard from his legal team to the airport.
“We have sought documents from immigration authorities based on which Qureshi was allowed to travel. Our officials were on the spot to take his custody but he was allowed to fly abroad,” ED official said.
The agency wanted to question Qureshi and had issued summons to him but could lay its hands on him.
In 2015, the agency had filed a case of money laundering against Qureshi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED had also conducted searches on Qureshi’s premises last year along with alleging that he has sent “huge amount of funds” through the hawala route to Dubai, London and other places in Europe.
During the investigation carried out by the Income Tax Department, it was revealed that the controversial meat exporter had links with senior CBI officers including former CBI directors A P Singh and Ranjit Sinha who had exchanged BBM messages with Qureshi.
The ED had earlier been probing this case under forex violation laws after the I-T department first shared documents indicating hawala and alleged contravention of forex laws by the businessman and his business entities based here. It had alleged that Qureshi has sent "huge amount of funds" through the hawala route to Dubai, London and few other overseas destinations in Europe.
The Income Tax department, during its probe, had found Qureshi had 11 bank lockers which were in the names of his employees and associates but the articles belonged to the businessman.