Overview

• ED searched 17 locations across Kerala and Tamil Nadu under FEMA in a probe into alleged smuggling of high-end vehicles via Bhutan and Nepal routes, covering premises linked to Prithviraj Sukumaran, Dulquer Salmaan and Amit Chakkalackal.
• Preliminary findings cite forged documents purporting to be from the Indian Army, the US Embassy and the MEA, fraudulent RTO registrations in states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, and prima facie FEMA violations under Sections 3, 4 and 8.
• The luxury-car probe follows Customs’ Operation Numkhor on September 23, which seized about three dozen vehicles across Kerala and flagged possible links to gold and narcotics smuggling.
• In Mumbai, the ED searched eight premises under PMLA to trace suspected proceeds from an alleged drug network tied to Faisal Javed Shaikh and Alfiya Faisal Shaikh, with officials naming wanted trafficker Salim Dola as a supplier of MD (mephedrone).
• Separately, the ED raided 15–16 sites across Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and Mumbai in a PMLA case against a tech-support call-centre racket linked to Karan Verma that allegedly extorted foreign victims and moved funds through cryptocurrencies and gift cards.