Gujarat: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday attached assets worth Rs 1,02,16,000 of Gujarat-based financier Kishore Bhajiawala under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case. He was taken into custody and will be produced in the court on Thursday.

41-year-old Bhajiawala is the resident of Udhnagam in Surat, has been found to have committed an offence of money-laundering and for allegedly using 1,000 fake IDs to illegally convert Rs1 crore in old notes into new post demonetisation.The case had gained prominence after investigating agencies detected the proverbial rags-to-riches ascent of the ‘chaiwala’ turned financier based in the diamond city of Gujarat.

Earlier, ED had registered a criminal FIR against Bhajiawala and some of his family members based on a CBI FIR against him, which was booked after the Income Tax department first conducted searches and seized gold and cash from his premises as part of their operation in December last year to check blackmoney.

“An amount of over Rs 1.02 crore in new currency was seized by the IT department from his premises during searches at his home, shop and bank lockers held by them. It was also found that the accused had hired several bank lockers in benami names to stash their unaccounted assets,” the ED alleged.

Based on the FIR received from Gandhinagar CBI, a case was registered against the businessman by the Enforcement Directorate under PMLA and investigation was initiated.

The IT sleuths had recovered Rs 1.45 crore cash, with about Rs 1.05 crore in new currency notes, bullion worth Rs 1.49 crore, gold jewellery valued at Rs 4.92 crore, other ornaments worth Rs 1.39 crore and silver priced at Rs 1.28 crore. The total assets of Bhajiawala detected by the IT were about Rs 10.50 crore.