Plea before Kerala High Court for ED probe into alleged hawala dealings by UNA President

A plea has been filed before the Kerala High Court seeking an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged hawala dealings by Jasmin Sha, the President of the United Nurses Association (UNA), during the COVID-19 pandemic [MR Ajayan v. Union of India]..Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas on Thursday (May 23) directed the Public Prosecutor to get instructions and scheduled the next hearing of the matter on June 13..The petition has been filed by MR Ajayan, a freelance journalist, who submitted that large sums of money was collected by the UNA President to cover the expenses of bringing back stranded nurses to India from Middle Eastern countries during COVID. However, Ajayan has alleged that these funds were not used for its stated purpose. "The 5th Respondent (Jasmin Sha) who is the president of the United Nursing Association, was engaged in major Hawala seal during the Covid period and under the guise of bring home i.e. back to India, the stranded nurses from Middle East countries and Saudi Arabia, he collected money to a tune of Crores for allegedly transporting the stranded nurses to India through Spice Jet. Huge amount was collected under the above said pretext and such huge amount was not actually incurred," the petition said..Ajayan's plea added that Jasmin Sha (UNA President) has close associations with MK Kannan, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Committee, who was currently under investigation by the ED in connection with the Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank Scam.It is alleged that the UNA President was involved in fraudulent activities of swindling crores of rupees and misappropriating funds for which a criminal case was also registered against him for the offenses of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating, forgery etc. A trial into the said case is pending before a court in Thrissur district. .Even after requesting the ED for an investigation into the UNA President's alleged activities, no action has been taken by the ED, the petitioner further stated. Ajayan, therefore, approached the High Court urging it to direct the ED to register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and initiate a thorough investigation into the alleged hawala transactions and misuse of funds.The hawala system refers to transferring funds from one location to another by an informal and illegal channel..The petition has been filed through advocates BA Aloor, Prashanth KP, Haseeb Hussan M, Krishna Sankar D, Rebin Vincent Gralan and Asokan KV.