Phone flung during ED raid may crack global gold smuggling case

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s digital sleuths have been scouring the data on the mobile phone of Dharmesh Sangani, a Mumbai-based businessperson, who is facing probes also in UK and US for alleged gold smuggling.Enforcement Directorate sources were lucky to get hold of the phone of Sangani, who has diversified into the entertainment industry, that he had flung Thursday from his 13th storey apartment as a team from the agency closed in on him.“The device seems to have survived the fall and could hold clues vital to our investigation,” said sources in the anti money-laundering agency which had been on Sangani’s trail for months following a report from US authorities alleging seizure of jewellery of more than Rs 30 crore last year from Dharmesh Sangani.Sources said Sangani’s phone could help with the investigation into what is suspected to be a larger gold smuggling and money laundering operation spanning UAE, the US, Canada and other tax havens and potentially involving some “influential” people in Mumbai.The ED’s present search has been conducted to probe violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) against Kalanee Impex Pvt Ltd, its directors Dharmesh Sangani, Narendra Sangani and Rajeeta Dharmesh Sangani.