ED files charge sheet against lawyer, 4 others for selling fake paintings to investment banker

Mumbai, Sep 24 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet before a court here against a lawyer and four others for allegedly selling 11 fake paintings of renowned artists such as M F Hussain and S H Raza to an investment banker for Rs 17.9 crore.

The accused had claimed that the paintings had been procured from a "Maharaja" from Madhya Pradesh who turned out to be a poor farmer, and a retired- IAS officer who denied having sold any paintings, the Central probe agency said.

The charge sheet, filed before the special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act cases earlier this week, named city-based lawyer Vishwang Desai, owner of Rare Art Gallery Rajesh Rajpal, Shree Namo Bullions owner Abhishek Jain and Manish Sakariya of Manish Gold Palace as accused.

The ED case stems from a First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Tardeo Police Station in Mumbai.

As per the complainant and investment banker Puneet Bhatia, he purchased 11 paintings purportedly of artists such as Manjit Bawa, M F Hussain, S H Raza, and F N Souza for a total of Rs 17.90 crore between February and May 2022. The payments were made to Art India International, owned by Rajesh Rajpal.

The ED's investigation revealed that Desai presented himself as an art collector with experience of more than 25 years, and persuaded Bhatia to invest in art. He knew well Rajpal, a big art dealer, he told Bhatia.

Desai also recommended particular artworks, vouched for their authenticity, and guided the transaction process, said the ED.

Out of the 11 paintings sold to Bhatia, one was purportedly sourced from Subroto Banerjee, a retired IAS officer, and remaining from Raghavendra Parmar, purported `Maharaja' of the erstwhile state of Umariya.

But Banerjee denied having sold any paintings to the accused, and Parmar turned out to be a farmer whose financial difficulties were exploited by Rajpal, the ED alleged.

Parmar had never given the ten paintings to Rajpal as claimed by the latter. But he had given a few other paintings to Rajpal. These paintings were in a very bad condition and even tattered.

Rajpal prepared fake documents taking advantage of Parmar's inability to read and write English, obtained his signatures on several documents while promising him money, the charge sheet said.

Assets worth Rs 6.47 crore were seized by the ED during investigation, including paintings, sculptures and silver items, allegedly bought from the proceedings of the crime. PTI AVI KRK