Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth ₹3.88 crores belonging to an bureaucrat Neeraj Singh and his associates in a corruption case. Singh, who is an officer of Indian Revenue Services, was the Additional Director of Income Tax (Investigation) based out of Kolkata when a first information report was lodged against him in 2017 by the police.

The attached assets include one residential property at Mumbai having a value of ₹3.15 crore and bank balances amounting to ₹73.16 lakhs.

“It was alleged in the FIR that the accused, by wrongfully using his power and capacity of a public servant, obtained huge amounts of money through illegal gratification and other than legal remuneration,” a press note released by ED states.

ED initiated an investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for alleged offences committed by Singh under Section 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (2) and 13 (1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

“The investigation revealed that Neeraj Singh kept Govind Agarwal as his frontman and laundered the obtained proceeds of crime through many bank accounts of various companies. Agarwal used to park the ill-gotten money of Singh into his companies,” ED said.

Agarwal also used to compensate for Singh personal expenses including flight tickets, travels and tours as well as hotel expenses. Singh had acquired a residential property in Mumbai in the year 2014 in the name of one of his relatives.

“For acquiring this property, Neeraj Singh routed his ill-gotten money through several companies floated by Govind Agarwal and finally placed them into the accounts of his relative in the guise of loans extended from a company. Singh was also found to possess and use bank accounts of his relatives, which were utilised for acquiring proceeds of crime. As such, these identified assets consisting of residential properties and balances lying in the bank accounts have been attached under PMLA,” ED has stated.

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