ED attaches property of retired Assam IPS officer in money laundering case
GUWAHATI The Guwahati zonal office of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹53.28 crore in a money laundering case against
GUWAHATI The Guwahati zonal office of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹53.28 crore in a money laundering case against a retired Assam-based IPS officer, members of his family, and their group companies. The attachment was carried out under a relevant section of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The ED said in a statement that the probe against Prasanta Kumar Dutta, who retired as a Deputy Inspector-General in 2019, was initiated based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the Assam police’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Branch. The police FIR said that Mr. Dutta, during his service period from 1992 to 2019, amassed assets grossly disproportionate to his known sources of income.
He and his wife were found to possess undisclosed assets of about ₹77.21 crore against a disclosed income of ₹7.23 crore and disclosed expenditure of ₹9.04 crore. “The net disproportionate assets were reasonably ascertained at approximately ₹79.01 crore based on the material on record,” the ED said. Investigations under the PMLA revealed that the “proceeds of crime so generated were laundered and projected as untainted property” through three closely-held companies — Mahamaya Estates Pvt. Ltd., Ishan Commercial Pvt. Ltd., and Murari Commodities Pvt. Ltd. The registered offices of all three companies were found to be non-existent. “The investigation established the introduction of unexplained cash aggregating ₹14,74,99,091 into the accounts of the family members and the companies, and the layering of funds through fictitious shareholders, Kolkata-based shell entities, and circular bank transfers, before integration into hotel properties and flats in Mumbai,” the statement read.
“The persons appearing as shareholders of the three companies were found to be, in large part, persons of no independent means, including fictitious or name-lending shareholders, having no source of income commensurate with the share-capital attributed to them, and were unable to explain the source of the funds,” it added. The ED said that after superannuation, Mr. Dutta, from the Assam Police Service, had 3,70,000 shares of Ishan Commercial Pvt. Ltd. transferred from dummy and fictitious shareholders to his name. This made him the largest shareholder of this company, which owns three of the four hotels in the family’s name.
The ED provisionally attached these four hotels, all in Guwahati, and two residential flats in Mumbai’s Andheri West. “Further investigation is in progress,” the agency said.
The BriefWire