ED Attaches Rs 11.14 Crore Assets Of Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan In Betting-Linked PMLA Case

The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached assets valued at Rs 11.14 crore belonging to Indian cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan, in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation, according to official sources cited by PTI.

The assets were attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and relate to a case involving an alleged multi-crore hawala racket.

The attached properties include various movable and immovable assets, with the ED alleging that the funds used to acquire these assets were derived from the proceeds of crime generated through illegal activities, specifically international hawala transactions. The cricketer's involvement, the ED claims, stems from their association with the primary entities under investigation.

The attachment order targets a total of Rs 6.22 crore in assets linked to Raina and Rs 4.92 crore in assets linked to Dhawan. While the investigation into the original hawala syndicate is intricate, the PMLA allows the central probe agency to freeze properties equivalent to the value of the crime proceeds to prevent their dissipation during the trial phase.

Sources close to the agency indicated that the cricketers were being probed for allegedly receiving funds from a key person linked to the illegal hawala operation, which was suspected of routing black money abroad and into India through various channels.

The ED initiated its PMLA probe after taking into account the multiple FIRs filed by the state police against the hawala operators. The probe aims to trace the entire money trail and penalise those involved in transactions that constitute money laundering.

Both cricketers, or their representatives, are expected to challenge the provisional attachment order before the PMLA Adjudicating Authority.