A special court under the PMLA in Panchkula on Wednesday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) six-day custody of AAP leader Deepak Singla.Singla, AAP’s Goa in-charge, contested the Vishwas Nagar seat in Delhi on an AAP ticket in 2020 and 2025. He was arrested on May 18.According to the remand papers accessed by The Tribune, Deepak Singla, his brother Raman Singla, and their maternal uncle Ashok Kumar Mittal created and operated a network of interconnected firms in India and Singapore to carry out fraudulent transactions.To further the conspiracy, forged and fabricated documents, including bills of lading, bills of entry, contracts, and other trade-related documents, were prepared and submitted to banks to open Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) and fraudulently enhance them, ED said.“Investigation has conclusively established that the bills of lading, bills of entry, and other supporting documents submitted by this nexus to the banks were forged and fictitious. This further substantiates that no actual import of goods, namely timber, took place in this case, confirming the fraudulent nature of the transactions,” ED submitted before the court.CBI had filed a case against Mittal for defrauding Oriental Bank of Commerce branch in Karnal. The total amount of FLCs originally opened for M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd was Rs 21.48 crore, while the fraudulently enhanced amount was Rs 173.04 crore. In his statement to ED in May 2022, Surender Kumar Ranga, the terminated senior manager of the OBC branch, said Mittal had verbally asked him to increase the value of Letters of Credit to an unlimited amount. In return, Mittal allegedly promised to help Ranga settle in Singapore.Role of Deepak SinglaED told the court that Deepak Singla was a director of M/s Traffic Media India Pvt Ltd, along with his brother Harish Singla. M/s Traffic Media was involved in purchasing timber from M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd. Simultaneously, Deepak Singla’s brother Raman Singla was a director in M/s Amazon Export Pte Ltd (AEPL), which supplied timber and associated goods to M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd.During the investigation, ED examined the books of account and ledger records of M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd, which showed that M/s Traffic Media had purchased timber and “imported timber” from it over a substantial period.ED added that CBI’s investigation, along with the findings and report of Director General of Systems and Data Management, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), had conclusively established that most bills of entry, bills of lading, and other import-related documents submitted by M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd were “fake, forged, and fabricated.”The investigation further established that no genuine import of timber took place for several transactions claimed by M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd.“In view of these findings, it is evident that M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd could not have possessed the so-called ‘imported timber’ allegedly sold to M/s Traffic Media India Pvt Ltd,” ED said.Consequently, the transactions recorded in the books of account showing the sale and purchase of imported timber between M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd and M/s Traffic Media India Pvt Ltd appear to be fictitious and without any genuine movement of goods.Further investigation revealed that M/s Traffic Media India Pvt Ltd had similarly shown purchases of imported timber from M/s Mahesh Resources Pvt Ltd and another entity linked to and controlled by Ashok Kumar Mittal, ED submitted on Wednesday.ED alleged that transactions between Deepak Singla’s M/s Traffic Media and M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd were merely accommodation entries and paper transactions undertaken to create bogus books of account and fraudulent trade records.“These fictitious transactions appear to have been intentionally structured to project false import and sales activities to the consortium banks, thereby inducing the banks to sanction and subsequently enhance Foreign Letter of Credit facilities and other credit limits in favour of M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd,” ED said.