ED arrests Bobby Patel, gets 4-day remand in money laundering, human trafficking case

Patel was produced before the Special Judge (PMLA), Mirzapura Court, Ahmedabad, which remanded him to ED custody for four days custody, the agency said in the statement.

The ED said that it had initiated its investigation against Patel and others based on an FIR registered for illegally sending Indian citizens abroad since 2015 by Sola High Court Police Station in Ahmedabad City.

The ED said that its probe allegedly revealed that Patel has been involved in sending “desirous Indian nationals abroad illegally for exorbitant consideration on the basis of bogus or fabricated documents for getting visas of different countries with duplicate or bogus passports used as genuine by impersonating the passengers wrongly”.

For this purpose, Patel and others, “used to collect Rs 60 to Rs 75 lakh for one passenger, Rs 1 to 1.25 crore for a couple (husband and wife) and Rs 1.25 to 1.75 crore if children were also accompanying the passengers abroad”.

In India, the ED said, multiple FIRs have been registered against Patel in Gujarat, Delhi and West Bengal. The “Proceeds of Crime (POC) generated in this case are valued at Rs 7 crore (approx)”, said the ED.

In 2024, the Ahmedabad Zonal Unit of the ED had conducted three raids involving Bobby Patel.

On March 1, 2024, the ED searched 29 locations in Gujarat, Delhi and Maharashtra belonging to accused persons in connection with the illegal immigration case, sending people from India to the US and Canada. These were on the basis of 3 FIRs registered by Gujarat Police under provisions of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against Bobby Patel, Rajubhai Bechar Prajapati,  Bhavesh Ashok Patel and others. Chargesheets have been filed in all the FIRs.

ED had earlier searched 21 locations in Gujarat and Delhi in January and February last year.

Bobby Patel is also an accused in the deaths of four members of a family from Dingucha, who froze to death while illegally crossing the border from Canada into the USA.