Above: Misa Bharti (file picture)/Photo: UNI

Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday (January 6) filed its second chargesheet against RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s daughter and MP Misa Bharti in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case in a Delhi court.

The court will examine the chargesheets on February 5. Previously, on December 23, ED had also filed another chargesheet against Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar at the Patiala House court in a PMLA case.

The agency had also attached the properties of Bharti and her husband. Bharti’s Chartered Accountant Rajesh Aggarwal had been arrested under charges related to money laundering. Aggarwal, it has been alleged, played the role of middleman for Bharti’s alleged money laundering acts.

The ED’s move on Saturday comes in a series of actions it has taken against the RJD leader over the past few months. In September, the agency had taken possession of Bharti’s farmhouse in the Palam Farms locality of Delhi in connection with its investigation.

The Central Investigation Agency (CBI) had said that the farmhouse belonged to Misa and her husband Shailesh Kumar but was named after Messrs Michelle Packers and Printers Pvt Ltd. It has been alleged by the probe agencies that this farmhouse was bought in 2008-09 using Rs 1.2 crore of laundered money.

The agency had also raided other places in July in connection with the investigation against two brothers, Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain, who had siphoned off crores of rupees by using shell companies. The role of the Jain brothers is also under the scanner in the PMLA cases filed against Bharti. The ED had arrested the Jain brothers on money laundering charges.

—India Legal Bureau