Pawan Munjal offers to deposit Rs 25 crore against assets seized by ED

Pawan Munjal offers to deposit money in lieu of assets attached by ED

Hero Motorcorp's Chariman and Managing Director (CMD) Pawan Kant Munjal on November 30 told the Delhi High Court that he was prepared to deposit Rs 25 crore against his assets provisionally seized by Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier this month.

Munjal's lawyers Mukul Rohatgi and Dayan Krishnan made the statement while the high court was hearing an application by ED seeking status quo of the assets they had attached on November 10. Rohatgi and Krishnan offered to furnish a demand draft or deposit the money in a fixed deport.

ED's lawyer Zoheb Hossain informed the court that he would take instructions on this regard. The court has accordingly deferred the hearing of the case.

The Rs 25 crore that Munjal has undertaken to deposit is the purported value of the assets that ED provisionally seized as part of a money laundering investigation. ED's proceedings against Munjal have already been stayed by the Delhi HC.

ED's application also sought for the court's permission to file a complaint against Munjal as per section 5(5) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.  According to the provision of law " The Director or any other officer who provisionally attaches any property shall, within a period of thirty days from such attachment, file a complaint stating the facts of such attachment before the Adjudicating Authority."

Noting that this was a procedural application, the court allowed the filing of the complaint, however the court made it clear that no investigation or proceedings can be carried out on the basis of this complaint.

Case file:

On November 17, the Delhi HC stayed ED proceedings against Munjal. The high court noted that since the Director of Revenue Intelligence's (DRI) complaint which is the genesis of ED's investigation has itself been stayed by the HC on November 3, the ED proceedings need to be stayed as well. The court has however clarified that the stay has been issued only in relation to Munjal and ED can continue its investigation with respect to others in the case. The case is now likely to come up for hearing on March 21.

The probe originated from a DRI complaint against an individual purportedly close to Munjal. This person was under scrutiny for allegedly carrying undeclared foreign currency.

ED attaches assets linked to Munjal:

 On November 10, the ED  provisionally attached three immovable properties of Munjal in Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).  The ED conducted raids against Munjal and his companies in August following the initiation of a PMLA case. This case was filed based on the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) charge sheet, which accused him of illegally taking foreign exchange/currency out of India