Shell firms: ED conducts nationwide searches at over 100 sites

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate(ED) today conducted country-wide searches at over 100 locations as part of its major crackdown on 500 shell companies suspected to be generating huge amounts of black money.

The raid operations across 17 states began early morning with ED sleuths swooping down at market places, business centres, residential premises and even houses put up on rent to hunt down the allegedly dubious and suspicious firms which the agency believes are the “back bone” of black money in the country.

By the last update, ED teams had visited at least 110 locations in cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Panaji, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Indore and some in Haryana.

The agency said it searched a Mumbai-based operator who was running 700 shell companies with 20 dummy directors and had “converted Rs 46.7 crore for Chaggan Bhujbal”, the jailed ex-Maharashtra deputy chief minister. (AGENCIES)