UAE assures help in FEMA case

New Delhi, August 27 : The Enforcement Directorate has finally received an assurance from authorities in Dubai that they would “very soon” be receiving details of all bank accounts, bank transactions and credit cards being operated by Indian businessman Avinash Bhosale in the UAE.

This follows the dispatch of a Letter of Request (LR) from the ED informing authorities in Dubai that the businessman was being investigated for a massive case of alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The Bhosale case gained momentum on Wednesday with the ED moving a 600-page Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the June 25 directions of the Mumbai High Court, asking the agency to return Bhosale’s impounded passport. The hearing is listed in the Supreme Court for Thursday.

As a run-up to the hearing, ED officials said their allegations against Bhosale go far beyond the original case of FEMA violations to the tune of $ 4 lakh which was registered against him in May 2007.

The ED’s action was a follow-up of a case registered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence after Bhosale’s arrest at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport in Mumbai in May, 2007. While the Pune-based businessman got a reprieve from the Settlement Commission against any criminal action from the DRI, the ED moved in quickly, impounded his passport and commenced investigations into his foreign exchange transactions.

Sources said that the approach for assistance from UAE follows Bhonsale’s own admission during questioning that he opened several bank accounts (in Habib Bank among others) and also operates several credit cards in Dubai.

Since Bhosale is no longer a NRI and has not taken permission from the Reserve Bank for the same, all transactions in these accounts and credit cards could attract action under FEMA.

The issue of Bhosale’s bank and credit card accounts came out in the open after the Mumbai High Court, while asking for his passport to be released, also asked the businessman to submit to the ED all details of his financial transactions in India and abroad, as well as details of his bank accounts to the ED from 1997 onwards.

The businessman has also claimed during questioning that he closed all his bank accounts in Dubai following his arrest in Mumbai.

Officials say that Bhosale has admitted to having opened six or seven bank accounts in Dubai when he was residing there and using several foreign credit cards. But he has submitted only details for a 10-month period of one bank account,...

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