New Delhi, March 27 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized cash amounting to Rs 2.54 crore, part of which was found concealed in a washing machine, following extensive searches at the premises of Capricornian Shipping & Logistics Pvt Ltd and its directors Vijay Kumar Shukla and Sanjay Goswami, among others.

As part of the probe, searches extended to related entities such as Laxmiton Maritime, Hindustan International, Rajnandini Metals Limited, Stewart Alloys India Pvt Ltd; Bhagyanagar Limited, Vinayak Steels Limited, Vashishta Constructions Pvt Ltd; and their directors and partners Sandeep Garg, Vinod Kedia, and others.

These searches were conducted across various locations, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kurukshetra, and Kolkata.

The financial probe agency had initiated an investigation on the basis of credible information which revealed that the said entities were involved in sending foreign exchange outside India on a large scale and made suspicious outward remittances amounting to Rs 1,800 crore to Galaxy Shipping & Logistics, Singapore and Horizon Shipping & Logistics, Singapore.

"Both these overseas entities are managed by one Anthony De Silva. It was found during the search that Capricornian Shipping & Logistics Pvt Ltd; Laxmiton Maritime along with its associates made outward remittance to the tune of Rs 1,800 crore to Singapore-based entities in the garb of bogus freight services, imports and layering them through web of complex transactions with the help of shell entities like Neha Metals, Amit Steel Traders, Triple M Metal and Alloys, HMS Metals etc.," said a senior ED official.

The official further said that during the search, besides the unexplained cash amounting to Rs. 2.54 crore, various incriminating documents and digital devices were found and seized during the search proceedings. "We have also frozen 47 bank accounts of the entities involved in the case," the official added.