10 arrested for conning Japanese paint company executives in name of ED summons

Ten members of an inter-state gang, which allegedly threatened senior executives of a major Japanese paint-making company to cough up Rs 15-20 crore for settling a fake ED case, have been arrested by a joint team of the federal agency and the Delhi Police, an official statement said on Monday.The Enforcement Directorate ED also said people should not fall into the trap of such gangsters and check the authenticity of summons issued in the agencys name by scanning a QR code provided on each such document.

Ten members of an inter-state gang, which allegedly threatened senior executives of a major Japanese paint-making company to cough up Rs 15-20 crore for ''settling'' a fake ED case, have been arrested by a joint team of the federal agency and the Delhi Police, an official statement said on Monday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also said people should not fall into the trap of such gangsters and check the authenticity of summons issued in the agency's name by scanning a QR code provided on each such document. The agency said it was recently informed by a ''reputed'' foreign company based in Mumbai, Nippon Paints, that its president and director have been summoned to depose before the agency in Delhi in connection with a money laundering investigation against them. This was done using ''forged'' summons of the agency, the ED said in its statement. It was found that an ''inter-state gang was active and targeting high profile persons and businessmen of the society and threatening them in the name of ED by sending them forged summons/notices,'' the agency said. ''The members of the gang (in this case) contacted officers of that company (Nippon Paints) and told them that they have good contacts with some officers of the ED and they could settle the matter for which they demanded Rs 15-20 crore,'' it said.

''Trap was laid and the members of the gang were asked to come to Delhi for negotiation,'' the ED said. It said after some hesitation, the members of the gang agreed to come to Delhi and a joint team of the ED and the Delhi Police arrested its kingpin, Akhilesh Mishra, and nine others. Devender Dubey, one of the gang's members, had threatened the representatives of the company to settle the matter or he would arrest them the next day, the ED said, adding that he was caught using government stickers on a car and ''pretended'' to being an ED officer. The ED said it is alerting the public about certain ''unscrupulous elements'' who have been trying to forge its summons in order to extort money.

''The ED has evolved a fool-proof mechanism for issuance of summons for recording of statements under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) as well as FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act),'' it said. ''The summons approved by the competent authority are generated electronically and can be authenticated by a unique QR code mentioned on the summons,'' the agency said. Those receiving a summon can verify its authenticity by scanning the QR code given on the document. On scanning the code, a person is directed to the ED's portal where details of the summon can be seen by entering a passcode, it said. The directorate also solicits cooperation of the public to bring such instances to the notice of the ED without any fear or hesitation at the contact details provided on the official website of the organisation, the agency said. People can inform and check about such instances by mailing on adint.hqenforce@gov.in and adint2-ed@gov.in or by calling 011-23339178 and 011-23339173.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)