Lottery king slapped with Rs 8-crore notice

The MP had earlier been called for questioning to the ED headquarters several times and his statements on the foreign exchange transfers are contained in the notice.

The notice states that money transfers to Subba Microsystems, a company launched by the MP in the US along with NRI stockbroker T T Pemba amounted to $1.8 million or Rs 8.5 crore. The MP, now faces penalties two to three times that amount under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

While the case against Subba is one of the biggest being filed under FEMA laws, the MP denied any wrongdoing. “This is an old case. There is no fault I have committed. I cooperated with ED and have not been informed about any conclusion they may have arrived at,’’ he told The Indian Express from Kolkata.

According to the ED notice, Subba opened a bank account with HSBC Bank in New York without RBI permission and then gave hefty advances to Subba Microsystem officials for import of sophisticated technology.

The ED has alleged that Subba received foreign exchange to the tune of $18.51 lakh from persons not authorized by the RBI, transferred $391,800 to Pemba by issuing cheques from his bank account and then transferred further funds via cheques to other US residents. Of this amount, only $116,000 was repatriated to India.

The ED’s action, it is to be recalled, is the last of several actions being filed against the Congress MP by investigating agencies. In 1998, the CBI registered a preliminary case against him following which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) compiled a report on alleged illegalities in running the Nagaland Lottery in 1999.

The other controversy the MP was embroiled in was the murder of his assistant in his Delhi farmhouse in 2004, for which his wife Jyoti and his brother-in-law Narendra Limboo were arrested.