Demonetisation: ED arrests Kotak Bank manager for alleged links with Parasmal Lodha

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday morning arrested a manager of the Kotak Mahindra Bank for his alleged links with hawala trader Parasmal Lodha and Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon. [caption id=“attachment_1029079” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Agency[/caption] Sources in the ED said that Ashish Kumar, the manager at the Kasturba Gandhi Marg branch of the bank, was arrested for allegedly converting over Rs 25 crore in demonetised notes linked to industrialist J. Sekhar Reddy and lawyer Rohit Tandon. On 23 December, the income tax department had carried out raids at the branch. Ashish, a resident of Haryana, would be produced in a Delhi court on Wednesday afternoon. Lodha, a leading businessman with interests in real estate and mining, was intercepted at the Mumbai airport while he was trying to flee to Malaysia. Meanwhile, the bank said in a statement that it has already suspended the services of the employee and that it proactively informed the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) about the suspicious transactions. “The Bank on its own, on observing the nature of transactions in these accounts, proactively filed a report with FIU for further investigations well in time. On subsequent investigation by the Income Tax authorities, the Bank, as per their instructions, has deposited the entire amount that was credited with these accounts with the Income Tax department,” the bank said in a statement. With IANS