Cobrapost (Delhi): As the interview progressed, Jaiswal made more startling revelations. There is a strong nexus between Manoj Agarwal and the Kamla Pasand Group. Agarwal supplies betel nut to the Group and all their franchisees, even as he works with people representing the Group. Dinesh Jaiswal, for instance. According to Jaiswal, both Dinesh Jaiswal and Agarwal operated the Daruhera plant in the night and recovered their investment within one-and-half-year of the plant becoming operational. It is quite revealing how this feat was achieved, and much more.

Here is how we have summed up his next revelations:

1. Manoj Agarwal supplies betel nut to the Kamla Pasand Group and its franchisees
2. Agarwal ran his business empire through proxies
3. At times, he would push his proxies to conduct transactions worth Rs. 400 crore–Rs. 500 crore each through the proxy entities before shutting them down
4. He coaxed the whistleblower to set up two such proxy entities where for 30 to 35 truckloads of betel nut, 300-350 truckloads would be processed unaccounted.
5. The whistle blower had approached the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) to apprise them of nature of Agarwal's business operations
6. He fears he is facing threat to his life from Agarwal and the Kamla Pasand Group

Agarwal's operational hub for betel nut processing was the plant at Sampla in Haryana under the name of Shree Ghata Mehendipur. A partnership firm with Jai Prakash Sharma, his wife, and Agarwal's brother Kamal on board. Part of his modus operandi consisted in opening firms through proxies and shutting them down after they had served their specific purpose. A ploy, perhaps, to cover his tracks. No wonder if he opened 40 firms during Jaiswal's association with him since 2018 till 2024. Money was provided by Agarwal for all these ventures. But these were set up in the names of proxy owners. Jaiswal, for instance, set up two factories for betel nut processing, as already described earlier, at Agarwal's behest. One was in Daruhera, his wife as one of the partners, and the other in Chhindwara in his brother-in-law Manoj Jaiswal's name. Jaiswal also made heavy investments in these two factories but never got back his dime, even as Agarwal and his partner Dinesh Jaiswal of the Kamla Pasand Group made a hay and recovered their investment within one-and-a-half year of the Daruhera plant becoming operational. Sharing his experience, the whistle blower spills the secret behind it: For every 30–35 truckloads of processed betel nut the Daruhera plant turned out and were accounted for, there would be 300–350 truckloads of processed nut turned out by it every month. He was advised to keep his eyes shut. What he tells leaves no one in doubt how Agarwal plied his trade out of Jaiswal's factory, "Hamara ek gaadi jo jaati thee uska hisaab kar dete theiy. ek gaadi jo mahine mein tees-paintees gaadiyan jaati thee uska hisaab kar dete theiy. Yani tees-paintees gaadiyon kee evaj mein jo saadhe teen sau gaadiyan katati thee usase hamein kahaa gaya ki apni aankhein band kar lo. toh ham aankh band kare rahe lekin kagaz toh mere paas mein hain na (They would pay me for 30–35 truckloads. For around 350 truckloads, I was asked to shut my eyes. I kept my eyes shut but I have the documents [of those])."

In addition to the documents, Jaiswal is in possession of recordings of phone conversations he had with Manoj Agarwal, his close associate and partner Deepak Malik, Anil Pandey from Kolkata, Vijay Kumar Jain from Raipur, Ashish from Kanpur, and Prem from Delhi. All working for Agarwal. His conversation with Malik suggests that all business transactions were done in cash. All the cash collected at the end point of distribution centre, Kolkata for instance, was slipped into the banking channels against the cash sale proceeds. Manoj Agarwal also got set up dozens of firms in the names of some of close associates of his confidant Deepak Malik, such as Naveen Traders and Shiv Enterprises, in Haryana. It is interesting to know what he made out of these firms: "Last moment mein Manoj Agarwal ne kaha ki dekho 2022 October se yah kaam band hona hai toh nai firm mat kholo kyonki nai firm kholne me bahut kharcha lagta hai toh purani firmon mein jitna kaam kheench sakte ho kheencho. Toh Bhaiya aap ye samajhiye Manoj ne har firm se chaar sau-paanch sau karod ka kaam karwaya. Ek firm mein paanch-paanch sau karod kee billing karwai. Aur wahi log aaj fanse hue hain (At the last moment, Manoj Agarwal told them their businesses would be shut down from 2022 October, there was no need to set up new firms because it costs a lot to do that. So, push as much business they could. Manoj clocked billings worth Rs. 400–500 crore through each firm, and now all those are badly entangled)." This is how Agarwal operated.

Agarwal had given his associates access to a separate p-account to manage crises such as some imminent raid or to settle a case by bribing the officials concerned. He would arrange the cash for such eventualities and this cash would come from "ooper se". This leaves us with a question: Did the generous cash come from the Kamla Pasand Group to forestall any potential trouble that could embroil them? Ankit Jain from Faridabad was another important cog in Agarwal's schematic. Jain ran shell entities and would use them to buy bills generated by Agarwal's proxy entities. To create stock in their books and move the "kacche ka maal" or the unaccounted goods from Agarwal's firms. Perhaps, this modus operandi was deployed to wrap his business operations in layers. This fact came to light after the Central GST raided Agarwal's firm and seized around 1.25 lakh bags of unaccounted betel nut as mentioned elsewhere. A case was lodged by the CyPAD branch of Delhi Police against both Jain and Agarwal's Delhi firms. Jain spilled the beans and cases against his firms and those of Agarwal's were slapped, Jaiswal claims. A fallout of the raid was that the ITC or Input Tax Credit facility of all the proxy firms, including those in Nagpur, were cancelled. The proxy owners or proprietors of those firms, around 14 at that time, have been served demand notices ranging from Rs. 20 crore to Rs. 30 crore. Jaiswal reassures us he was ready to prove Agarwal was the beneficiary owner of all these proxy firms: "Haan, proxy. kahin apna naam nahin par haan main apne paper mein jo balance sheet hai usmein main ye saabit bhi kar doonga ki ye Manoj kee firmein hain usase se wo nahin bach payenge (Yes, proxy. Nowhere would you see his name. But I would prove those firms are owned by him with the papers, the balance sheets which I possess. He would be able to escape from it)."

You have so far learned about Manoj Agarwal's business practices in uncanny details. The manner in which he conducts all his transactions in cash, how the cash is slipped into the banking channels, how it is moved around through hawala, and how he opens and shuts down entities with the blink of an eye. He ropes in individuals to work for him when convenient and dumps them. It is as clear as a crystal that Agarwal runs his business empire through proxies.

One such benami or proxy firm was Shree Rudra Overseas which Jaiswal set up at Agarwal's behest in Madhya Pradesh sometime around March 2022. This Chhindwara-based entity was registered in his brother-in-law Manoj Jaiswal's name. A plot of land was leased for a factory which became operational in June 2023. All business operations were conducted in the name of Shree Rudra Overseas. The company has received large chunks of funds ranging from Rs. 9.20 lakh to Rs. 1.50 crore through RTGS from six entities – Pawan Sut Enterprises, Dheera Trading Company, Gooddeal Infracon, Cosmic Trade and Investments, Amarkantak Infracon, and Palak Suppliers. These 23 transactions totalling Rs. 9.08 crore were conducted in a span of 30 days from July 16, 2024 to August 15, 2024. Two of these firms Pawan Sut Enterprises and Dheera Trading Company as identified by Jaiswal are owned by Agarwal. These fund transfers show the nature of Agarwal's business transactions. "Toh Manoj Agarwal ke dawra Chhindwara mein paisa aya fir Chhindwara kee firm factory mein jo khadi supari South se khareedi hai unko payment karni hai," this is how the banking channels were used to move around large funds.

Six years was a long time for Jaiswal to understand inside out Manoj Agarwal's business operations and the ramifications it had in store for him. He was apparently fed up with Agarwal's style of functioning, brazenly using and dumping proxies, even using dummy or fake entities, and keeping 90 percent of transactions off the books. All these activities were a sure recipe for disaster and Jaiswal could no longer endure it. But when all his pleas for transparent business practices and a clean break fell on deaf ears, Jaiswal began to make notes in a diary sharing his experience working with Agarwal in detail, recording phone conversations, saving chats on WhatsApp, and keeping records of the Daruhera and Chhindwara operations. He also approached the office of the DGGI (Directorate General of GST Intelligence), Delhi, and narrated to them the shady nature of Agarwal's business transactions, the loss of revenue caused to the government. The officials offered to make him an approver in the case, Jaiswal claims. But taking on a person like Manoj Agarwal was fraught with risk of the officials being managed by Agarwal. He backtracked.

The fear to his life and liberty was real as events following his parting ways in January 2025 showed. FIRs against him, his wife, brother-in-law, and other kin were registered both in Daruhera and in Chhindwara. The Haryana Police even attempted to arrest him. He somehow managed to wriggle out of their grip, "Main kisi tareeke se bach ke nikla nahin toh main toh maar hee diya jata. aur aaj bhi lage hue hain hamein maar dein chaahe Manoj Agarwal hon ya Kamla Pasand hon poori tareeke se wo chaah rahe hain mera ant ho jaae taaki mere paas jo documentary evidence hai main kahin na de paaoon (I somehow managed to wriggle out. I could have been bumped off otherwise. Be it Manoj Agarwal or those from the Kamla Pasand, they all want to get me killed so that the I would never be able to provide whomsoever the documentary evidence I possess)," tells us a visibly shaken Jaiswal. Their objective is clear: Prevent Jaiswal from producing documentary evidence whenever authorities come looking for it.

Whistleblower Kush Jaiswal also did accounting of Manoj Agarwal. He was paid a commission against the sale of processed betel nut supplied to various distribution centres of Agarwal's business network. So were other associates like Subodh Agarwal, Deepak Malik, and Jai Prakash Sharma, among others. Among the documents provided by Jaiswal is a bunch that have details of sales figures of Delhi and Kolkata operations. According to these documents, both centres logged in more than Rs. 395.73 crore in combined sales in a span of six months. Between July and December 2019, to be precise. If Jaiswal claims that Agarwal must have conducted trading worth Rs. 60,000 crore during six years of his association with him, he may not be exaggerating. He admits to book keeping for Agarwal.

As mentioned earlier, Jaiswal had have phone conversations with Manoj Agarwal and some of his close associates. In one such conversation, Jaiswal had discussed a payment of Rs. 7.30 crore. In the course of the interview, he again verifies the transaction by showing us a photo of Agarwal and the document with hand-written entries lying at his desk.

A visibly shaken Jaiswal also tells us the threat to his life and the harassment he and his family members have been subjected. His movements are being monitored and his residence in Lucknow is under constant surveillance by unidentified men from vehicles parked outside his residence. What he told us would send chill down your spine.

If the averments made by Jaiswal are to be believed, Agarwal must have left the state exchequer poorer by anything between Rs. 70,000 crore and Rs. 80,000 crore in tax evasion. This is just on account of the betel nut trade. This evasion could be multiple times if we take into consideration the value addition in the form of pan masala, gutkha, and other consumables. The allegations made by him against Manoj Agarwal and the Kamla Pasand Group need to be investigated by a competent government agency not only for potential tax evasion but also potential violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Before going public with the interview, Cobrapost had sent detailed questionnaires to both Manoj Agarwal and the Kamla Pasand Group. But they failed to respond.

Disclaimer:

The disclosures, claims, and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the whistleblower. Cobrapost assumes no liability or responsibility for any unverified statements made by Kush Jaiswal during the course of this interview.

Transcription and translation of video-taped content are complex processes subject to human error; however, every effort has been made to ensure accuracy.