Jaipur: IT Sleuths Detain Congo-Based Indian Businessman Accused of Embezzlement
New Delhi: Income tax sleuths on Monday, February 6, detained Harish Jagtani, an Indian-origin Congo-based businessman, in Jaipur in connection with a multi-million dollar embezzlement scandal that rocked the African nation in November 2021.
Income tax officials in Jaipur have confirmed that Jagtani, a businessman who arrived in New Delhi recently along with an official delegation from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is being searched.
"He was brought to Jaipur for questioning as there are cases registered against him here. Our team that is posted in Gurgaon was roped in to carry out the search," an IT official told The Wire.
Jagtani was brought to Jaipur from Delhi on Saturday and his properties in places like Tilak Nagar were searched.
The case relates to the embezzlement of at least $138 million of public funds between 2013 and 2018 from Congo. The funds in Congo were transferred through a subsidiary of BGFI, one of Africa’s largest banks, and made their way to companies and accounts owned by former president Joseph Kabila’s relatives and close allies. Several questionable transfers were made to Jagtani too, though he insists the funds received were for legitimate purposes.
Also read: Indian Businessman at Centre of Probe Into Multi-Million Dollar Congo Embezzlement
A consortium of media outlets and non-governmental organisations coordinated by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) investigated and analysed the information for over six months, before breaking the story in November 2021. The Wire is one of the media partners in the collaboration.
The Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAF), a Paris-based anti-corruption group, and the French publication Mediapart obtained over 3.5 million documents that detail nearly 10 years of transactions at BGFI Bank Groupe SA. The leak, called the Congo Hold-up, is the biggest ever leak of financial records from Africa.
Jagtani owns multiple businesses in DR Congo including real estate firms, an air freight company and hospitals. As per investigations conducted by media partner Radio France International (RFI), Jagtani benefitted from funds that came from Congo’s central election body, Commission Électorale Nationale Indépendante(CENI) and were meant for the organisation of the 2011 elections in the central African nation.
Originally from Jaipur, Jagtani arrived in Congo in 1995. He was a man of modest means at the time and worked as an employee at an import company run by an Indian trader. Back home, his mother was a schoolteacher.
In his 25 years in the DRC though, he has risen dramatically and is now among the most influential businesspersons in the country. Jagtani owns one of the largest air freight companies in Congo, the real estate firm with the most high-profile projects on its roster, a super-specialty hospital in the capital Kinshasa, and is known to be close to Kabila.
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