The Enforcement Directorate has summoned actor Prakash Raj for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged Rs 100-crore ponzi and fraud case against a Tiruchirapalli-based jewellery group, official sources said Thursday. The investigation pertains to a case against Pranav Jewellers, a partnership firm based in Tiruchirapalli, whom the ED raided on November 20 and claimed to have seized Rs 23.70 lakh cash and some gold jewellery. A source said Raj (58), a national award-winning actor, was a brand ambassador of the company. He had been asked to depose before an investigation officer in Chennai in the first week of December. “The ED decided to record his statement to ascertain some purported payments made by the company to him and some other financial transactions,” the sources said. On November 20, searches were conducted under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the case of a Ponzi Scheme run by certain accused persons in the name of the entity M/s Pranav Jewellers, a partnership firm based out of Trichy. “During the searches, various incriminating documents, unexplained cash of Rs 23.70 lakh, bullion/ gold jewellery weighing 11.60 kg have been seized,” an ED spokesperson said. According to the ED, the probe agency initiated investigations on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing, Trichy against M/s Pranav Jewellers and others alleging that Rs 100 crore was collected from the public by M/s Pranav Jewellers under the guise of a gold investment scheme with a promise of high returns. M/s Pranav Jewellers failed to return the amount to these investors. “ED investigation revealed that M/s Pranav Jewellers and other connected persons cheated the public by diverting public funds to shell entities/entry providers under the garb of purchasing bullion/ gold ornaments. Searches also revealed that the supplier parties in the books of M/s Pranav Jewellers were entry providers, who during the investigation confessed to have provided adjustment/accommodation entries to M/s Pranav Jewellers for amounts over Rs 100 crore and also confessed to giving cash to the accused persons in lieu of bank payments,” the spokesperson said.
