Ahmedabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 before the Special PMLA Court in Ahmedabad in connection with an alleged cheating case involving Chartered Accountant Tehmul Sethna, who is accused of defrauding the trust Environment Research & Development Centre (ERDC).

The ED initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Gujarat Police under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The offences mentioned in the FIR fall under the scheduled offences listed under the PMLA.

According to the ED, the investigation revealed that Tehmul Sethna had been entrusted with the administrative and financial affairs of the ERDC trust. During this period, he allegedly obtained the signature of one of the trustees for opening a bank account and later forged the same signature to issue unauthorised bearer cheques.

Using this modus operandi, he allegedly withdrew funds amounting to about ₹6.85 crore from the trust’s bank account without the knowledge or consent of the trustees, thereby generating proceeds of crime and deriving wrongful pecuniary gains of the same amount.

In the case, the ED had earlier issued a Provisional Attachment Order attaching various immovable properties, including residential flats and plots, equivalent to the total proceeds of crime valued at ₹6.85 crore.

The prosecution complaint has now been filed before the Special Court under the PMLA for further legal proceedings. DeshGujarat