Mehul Choksi’s aide sent to 14-day judicial custody

A special court in Mumbai Monday remanded Deepak Kulkarni, an executive working for fugitive Mehul Choksi, in judicial custody for 14 days.

Kulkarni was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of judge M S Azmi after his remand ended Monday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Kulkarni last week at the Kolkata airport after he landed from Hong Kong. He was then brought to Mumbai.

The agency is probing the money-laundering aspect of the alleged USD 2 billion fraud at Punjab National Bank in which Choksi and his diamantaire nephew Nirav Modi are the main accused and are absconding.

According to the ED, Kulkarni was linked to overseas businesses of Choksi, and was a director in a Hong Kong-based ‘dummy firm’ linked to the latter.