KOCHI : The crime branch which is probing the cheating case against conman Monson Mavunkal has written to the directors of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) Department seeking a probe into the black money hoarded by six businessmen who had filed complaints against him.
The crime branch move came after the six complainants approached the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) raising bribery allegations against the investigation team.
It was last week that the crime branch team wrote to ED and IT department directors pointing out the involvement of black money in the case. According to the crime branch, complainants said they gave Rs 10 crore to Monson. Of this, only Rs 1.11 crore was paid through the legal channel. No information was disclosed by the complainants regarding the remaining Rs 8.89 crore. “During the trial of the case, the source of Rs 8.89 crore will be questioned in the court. So, we have written to the directors of ED and IT seeking an investigation in this regard. We are not authorised to probe into black money deals. We are waiting for the response from ED and IT. We expect that the ED which is probing a money-laundering case against Monson will include black money hoarding as well in their probe,” an official said.
Already, the complainants and crime branch officials are at loggerheads after the former approached the VACB with a complaint that investigation officials took Rs 1.25 lakh as a bribe to speed up the investigation. The complainants are also planning to approach the court seeking a CBI probe into the incident. The crime branch officials had released a video footage in which one of the complainants was seen meeting with Monson’s son. The agency later released a voice clip containing a voice message of a complainant named Yakoob in which he was speaking about money transactions. Crime branch also maintains that the complainants held a meeting with the brother of the victim in a rape case involving Monson offering money for settlement.