New Delhi, Apr 13 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has conducted raids on the premises of jailed gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his associates, following which it seized Rs 75 lakh in cash along with some documents pertaining to nearly 200 bank accounts and 50 shell entities.

The ED said that cash transactions worth more than Rs 50 crore were also detected during the searches.

The raids were conducted at 15 locations.

According to a source, the raids were conducted at the premises belonging to chartered accountant Sabeeh Ahmed, Asif Jafri, Seetaram Shukla, real estate developers Sanjeev Aggarwal and Deepak Bhargav, advocate-cum-accomplice Saulat Hanif Khan and other aides Khalid Zafar, Asad, Vadood Ahmed, Kali and Mohsin.

"Atiq Ahmad and his aides were laundering the extortion money and the money which they collected through illegal activities. The documents seized during the raids confirm this. We seized papers of around 100 properties which are in the name of Atiq Ahmad's close aides and other shell firms being run by them. These properties are suspected to be Atiq's benami properties," the ED said.