India, Nov. 19 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ushik Gala, businessman and managing director of Suumaya Industries Ltd, as part of its money laundering investigation into the alleged misappropriation of Rs.137.05 crore from another firm on the pretext of financing a fictitious business scheme purportedly linked to the mid-day meal programme.

"The so-called scheme was a sham devised to create a facade of legitimate trading activity and to unlawfully obtain, divert and integrate funds so obtained from the complainant," the ED's Mumbai unit told the special court where Gala was produced on Tuesday and remanded in the ED's custody till November 24. Gala's firm had failed to pay back the company from which it had procured the...