IT firm director arrested for US drug cartel link

From rxpgnews.com

India Sci-Tech
IT firm director arrested for US drug cartel link
By IANS, Feb 13, 2007 - 6:40:42 PM

Kolkata, Feb 13 - The director of an IT company in West Bengal, arrested for alleged involvement with a US firm linked to a drug cartel, was laundering huge sums of drug money in various international bank accounts in Hong Kong, Luxembourg, the US and Sweden.

Sanjay Kedia, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology --Delhi who did his post-graduation from North Carolina University, was head of software development firm and BPO Xponse Technologies Limited in the city's info-tech hub Sector V.

He was arrested Sunday under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, said NCB Eastern Zonal Director Sandeep Mittal.

'Kedia was involved in trafficking psychotropic substances, mainly Phentermine, on the Internet,' Mittal said, adding that he could end up in prison for 20 years if convicted.

Kedia would take orders for psychotropic substances from the US, Canada and Sweden with the help of toll-free numbers or the Internet, Mittal said.

US-based Steven Mahana, who owned a 49 percent share in Xponse, was also arrested in America, he said, adding that a team would go to the US to interrogate him.

'Evidences - both in documents and in digital format - were seized during the searches. There are proofs of money laundering in more than 20 Indian and multi-national bank accounts by Kedia and his companies,' Mittal said.

Kedia's arrest followed a tip-off by the Federal Bureau of Investigation - of the US to India's Narcotics Control Bureau -.

NCB officers had raided Kedia's office on the seventh and eighth floors of Kariwala Towers Feb 1. After a scrutiny of the seizure, which included Rs.2 million in cash and $300, the sleuths arrested him from his home in Salt Lake.

Kedia, 33, was produced in a city court Monday and remanded in judicial custody for a fortnight. He has been charged under sections 24, 29 and 30 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances - Act.

Section 24 deals with those who trade in or deal with banned substances outside the country without a proper licence. Section 29 covers abetment and conspiracy, while section 30 deals with those who prepare such substances for commercial purpose without licence.

Kedia's lawyer C.K. Jain said his client has 'in essence' been charged with providing software to a company that ran its business through a website dealing with pharmaceuticals.

'The company had asked my client to develop a software for the website that deals with medicines and drugs and also look after its maintenance. Accordingly, he had prepared the software.

'For every transaction carried out through the website, my client received a part of the service charge. The US agency now alleges that he has been receiving a part of the money that a drug cartel made by selling drugs over the website,' Jain said.

Founded in 2002 by Kedia, Xponse's 'apparent' objective is to provide holistic technological solutions to businesses that intend to compete in the omni-changing global marketplace.