Over Rs 17 crore in hard cash seized in ED raid on Kolkata conman

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials have recovered over Rs 17 crore in hard cash in a raid on the residence of a conman in Kolkata who has been cheating people through an online gaming app called E-Nuggets.

The recovery was made from the Garden Reach residence of businessman Aamir Khan. The cash was found in 5 trunks at Khan’s residence. The search of the anti-money laundering agency started on Saturday morning and the counting of cash continued till Sunday morning. The ED search team was accompanied by Bank officials and central forces.

Visuals of the raids show huge piles of currency notes almost filling up an entire bedroom. While most of the currency notes are of Rs 500 denomination, there are some bundles of Rs 2,000 as well.

Sources said the stacks of notes were mostly in the denomination of Rs 500. However, currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 200 were also there.

The raids were conducted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Aamir Khan launched a mobile gaming application E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding the public, the ED said in a statement.

During the initial period, the agency said, the users were rewarded with the commission and the balance in the wallet could be withdrawn hassle-free.

“This provided initial confidence among users and they started investing bigger amounts for a greater percentage of commission and a greater number of purchase orders,” the probe agency said.

It said after collecting huge amounts from the public,  withdrawal of money from the App was suddenly stopped on one pretext or the other such as system upgradation. After which all data including profile information was wiped off from the App servers and only then the users realised that they had been cheated.

A case was first filed against Aamir Khan  based on a complaint by Federal Bank authorities.