Parasmal Lodha arrested in laundering case: A short profile of controversial business man

Intensifying its search to unearth black money post the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the enforcement directorate has arrested Kolkata-based businessman Paras M Lodha in connection with the alleged conversion of over Rs 25 crore in old currency to new notes.

The agency arrested him in connection with conversion of more than Rs 25 crore of old notes to new notes in Shekhar Reddy and Rohit Tandon cases. While the Reddy case pertains to Chennai where the Income Tax department has made the biggest detection of unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore, the Delhi Police and the I-T department seized Rs 13.5 crore from a law firm belonging to lawyer Rohit Tandon.

So, exactly who is Parasmal Lodha? Here’s a short profile of this Kolkata-based businessman.

Lodha is a controversial Kolkata-based real estate developer, who also has interests in mining, finance, consultancy and restaurant firms.

Lodha gained prominence after his aggressive takeover of Peerless General Finance and Investment Company Ltd, then India’s largest non-banking financial institution, in 1991, The Indian Express report said.

He is also alleged to have alleged links with dreaded fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. It was said that Dawood had asked Lodha to threaten Peerless Chairman and Managing Director P C Sen to sell his majority stake in the firm to Lodha, the IE report said.

Being a real estate developer, Lodha has gained nicknames such as ‘Extra floors Lodha’ or ‘Fiddler on the roof’ for adding extra floors to an existing property.

In 2010, Lodha’s name emerged in the Kolkata’s Stephen Court fire case in which 43 people had died. He was at large during the investigations, although he had denied playing any role in securing permission to build three additional floors illegally to the existing five of the building.

Besides this, Lodha is currently the director of seven firms, which also include Peerless General Finance, and is registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Recently, Lodha’s daughter Pallavi Lodha got married in a high-profile wedding with Rahul Jain, son of JK Jain, chairman & managing director of Fiem Group, an auto ancillary company with plants in India and abroad.

The wedding was attended by several politicians. According to the Economic Times report, Dr Jain presented his daughter-in-law with a Rolls-Royce Ghost on their engagement day.

With PTI inputs