ED attaches assets worth Rs 2.89 cr of EPFO officer

Kolkata, Oct 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said that it has attached assets worth Rs 2.89 crore of an Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner in connection with its probe into a money laundering case involving four officers of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

The central probe agency in a release said that the attachment was made under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The agency has registered a case on the basis of the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Ramesh Chandra Singh, Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner and three others -- namely Samiran Kumar Mondal, Deepak Bhattacharya and Sukumar Shaw.

The agency said that during investigation it was found that Singh was receiving bribes by misusing his official position and thereby acquired assets disproportionate to his income.

"Singh was laundering the illegal gratification by investing in various properties and parking funds in the name of his family members. He also created false documents to project the bribe money as legal money from tuition income, tailoring income, brokerage, Commodity Trading Profit etc. in the name of his wife and other family members," it alleged.

The agency said that based on the investigations, a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) has been issued under the PMLA attaching assets totalling Rs 2.89 crores which include deposit certificates of banks and post offices as well as bank and postal accounts balances, immovable properties in the nature of flats in Kolkata.

Earlier, during searches at the residence of Singh the agency recovered Rs 10.60 lakh in cash, gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 27 lakh besides documents relating to fixed deposits, postal deposits, immovable properties and details of 75 bank and post office accounts.

Source: IANS