HC dismisses plea by meat exporter Moin Qureshi

New Delhi, Dec 1 : The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case.

A division bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice P.S. Teji dismissed Qureshi's plea, who was arrested on August 25 and has been in judicial custody since then.

The court said there was no illegality in his arrest. The ED and the Centre had opposed Qureshi's plea before the court.

Qureshi was arrested by the ED in a 2016 case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for alleged illegal forex dealings and tax evasion.

According to the financial crimes probe agency, Qureshi was being investigated for allegedly remitting funds through hawala channels to Dubai, London and a few other destinations in Europe.

The ED had said that during the course of investigation, certain facts had emerged that constituted omission and commission of certain acts on the part of certain public servants holding high offices in collusion with Qureshi, whereby massive illegal money transactions were carried out.

The agency had also said that the records collected from the Income Tax Department had revealed that Qureshi took huge amount of money from different persons for obtaining "undue favours from public servants" after exercising his personal influence.

Qureshi had told the court that his arrest was illegal as the ED had arrested him directly when he was called for questioning and he was not informed about the grounds of the arrest.