NEW DELHI, Jan 30: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a show cause notice to Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, his manager and Indian associates for dealing in foreign currency equivalent to Rs 2.61 crore in alleged violation of country’s forex laws, the central probe agency said Wednesday.
It said the notice has been issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), after the probe in the 2011 case was completed recently.
“A show cause notice for the contravention of section 3(a) and section 6(3) of FEMA, 1999 read with Regulation 5 & 7 (2)(b) of Foreign Exchange Management (export and import of currency) Regulations, 2000 for an amount of approximately Rs 2.61 crore has been issued to Khan and Maroof Ali (Khan’s manager), both Pakistani nationals, for illegal dealings in foreign exchange,” the ED said in a statement.
It added some Indians have also been charged under the same notice “for their involvement in supplying of the foreign currency unauthorisedly.”
The agency said its probe revealed that “Khan had engaged late Chitresh Shrivastava as global event manager, who used to collect payments on his behalf for various shows performed by him in India.”
“Major part of these payments were received in cash. These cash amounts were illegally converted into US dollars through unauthorised sources by Shrivastava and the same were handed over to Khan,” it said.
In this manner, it said, Khan “had illegally received USD 3,40,000 in India through unauthorised sources with the help of his event manager and with the support of his manager he had illegally taken out USD 2,25,000 out of India before being intercepted by DRI.”
Officials said Khan, who is popular for his renditions in India and Pakistan, has been asked to reply to the notice within 45 days, along with others.
The case pertains to 2011 when the agency initiated a FEMA investigation against him and his associates in 2014 after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), in 2011, intercepted Khan and his manager, Maroof Ali Khan, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here for allegedly carrying an undeclared amount of USD 1.24 lakh and some other instruments in foreign currency.
The ED, which is the central agency to probe such forex contraventions under the FEMA, took over the case after this interception.
It had initiated the step after obtaining records of the said cash from the RBI.
The singer, who has been grilled by the ED in this case in the past, had denied any wrongdoing saying they were carrying the large amount of cash because they were travelling in a group and the act was inadvertent.
Khan’s songs are popular chartbusters in a number of Hindi movies. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
