DSK scam: In presence of ED officials, family of DS Kulkarni collects documents from his office, bungalow in Pune

Since October 2017, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Pune City police has been probing the DSK Group for allegedly cheating around 35,000 depositors and investors to the tune of Rs 1,083 crore, siphoning of Rs 711 crore received in the form of loans, and Rs 111 crore accepted through debentures and a land deal in Fursungi involving embezzlement of Rs 184 crore.

The ED has also launched an investigation into the alleged money laundering case by the group as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In February 2019, the ED had attached assets worth Rs 904 crore of the DSK Group for allegedly defrauding small investors.

According to a statement then issued by the ED, Kulkarni, his wife Hemanti and their son and executive director of the DSK Group allegedly floated eight partnership firms in Mumbai, Pune and Kolhapur to collect deposits from “gullible investors”.

The agency said between 2006 and 2017, the firms raised about Rs 1,129 crore from over 35,000 investors. The immovable properties attached by the ED include land, buildings, flats, insurance policies and cash deposits in bank accounts.

The ED statement said the three officials of the group, “layered and integrated” the funds received by the eight partnership firms “through various high-value sham transactions under cover of capital, advance against property and director’s loan between 40 group companies” of DSK to project it as “untainted money”.

The ED has alleged that the money was then laundered to four DSK firms in India and the US, as well as to the bank accounts of the Kulkarnis. The ED statement also said the laundered money was utilised to purchase properties in India and the US, to repay bank loans and to purchase high-value LIC policies for the Kulkarni family, among others.