ED seizes assets worth ₹25 cr from Hero MotoCorp's Pawan Munjal residence

The enforcement directorate seized assets worth ₹25 crore including gold, jewellery, foreign currency and incriminating documents from the residence of Hero MotoCorp's chairman Pawan Munjal and other senior officials on Wednesday, the federal agency said in a statement.

This comes a day after the agency conducted raids under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) across 12 locations in Delhi and Gurugram of Hero MotoCorp, including Munjal’s residence, after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence filed a chargesheet against the company. 

According to the enforcement directorate, the key associates of Munjal who worked with a third-party service provider company Salt Experience and Management Pvt Ltd (SEMPL) illegally exported foreign currency worth ₹54 crore to various countries between 2014 and 2015 and 2018 and 2019, which was then used for the personal expenses of Munjal.  

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has reportedly recently apprehended a close aid of Munjal in relation to money laundering and the possession of undeclared foreign currency.

Munjal and Hero MotoCorp have been under the government’s radar since last year in relation to siphoning off money and corporate lapses. In June this year, the ministry of corporate affairs initiated an investigation against the country's leading two-wheeler manufacturer in relation to lapses in corporate governance. Hero MotoCorp has been reportedly alleged of floating shell companies.

Prior to this, the income tax department, in March last year, conducted raids across several premises of Hero MotoCorp and Munjal for alleged tax evasion. The government agency had then said that an expenditure of over ₹800 crore made by the auto company has been booked in the guise of the purchase of services from a specific event management entity, which allegedly siphoned off the money.

Meanwhile, shares of Hero MotoCorp snapped two days losing streak and surged as much as 0.95% to hit an intraday high of ₹3,021.55 apiece on the BSE on Thursday, owing to value buying by investors. The scrip opened lower at ₹2,965.05 as against the closing price of the previous session of ₹2,992.85 in line with the broader BSE Sensex. The market capitalisation stood at ₹59,543.82  crore with 16,232 shares exchanging hands on the BSE as against the two-week average of 0.38 lakh shares.

At the time of reporting, the share price of Hero MotoCorp was trading 0.43% lower at ₹2,980, paring early gains.