Patna,(BiharTimes): The Enforcement Directorate on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 13.62 lakh each on the Deputy Chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council Saleem Perwez and jailed former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin for violations of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

According to ED sources the penalty had been imposed on the two under Sections 3(a) and 4 of FEMA for unauthorised dealing in foreign exchange and possessing foreign currency.They were found guilty by ED during adjudication of a case of 2005.

The ED has also ordered ‘absolute confiscation’ of 7,600 US dollars, 10,540 dirhams and 800 Saudi riyals worth Rs 4.54 lakh at that time, seized from Shahabuddin’s house during a police raid in 2005.

During the probe into the case, Shahabuddin had said the seized foreign exchange had been given to him by Saleem Perwez. The latter was summoned and he said that he was an NRI living in Saudi Arabia.
During the second summon by ED, Perwez, who was in 2011 elected deputy chairman of the Legislative Council had changed his statement and said Shahabuddin had gone to Saudi Arabia in August 2003 where he got the money as ‘Zakat’. Shahabuddin, he said, had handed over the money to him for safe-keep, as he (Shahabuddin) had to go somewhere else