ED files charge sheet against advocates, others in Patna railway claims tribunal 'fraud' case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Saturday said it has filed a charge sheet against some Bihar-based advocates and others in a money laundering case linked to alleged siphoning of funds of deceased persons whose claims were settled by the Railway Claims Tribunal in Patna.

The federal probe agency said in a statement that it has also provisionally attached 24 immovable properties worth Rs 8.02 crore part of the probe. It, however, did not say who owned these attached properties.

The charge sheet has been filed against advocates Bidyanand Singh, Parmanand Sinha, Vijay Kumar and Kumari Rinki Sinha apart from Archana Sinha, Nirmala Kumari and Harijag Business and Development Pvt Ltd.

A special PMLA court in Patna took cognisance of the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) on Friday, it said.

The charge sheet seeks confiscation of the attached assets and conviction of the accused, the ED said.

Those listed in the charge sheet or their legal representatives could not be contacted for a comment on these charges made against them by the ED.

The money laundering case stems from FIRs filed by the CBI regarding "mass-scale" irregularity and criminality in the death claim cases filed, processed and decided at the Railway Claims Tribunal located in Patna.

Advocate Bidyanand Singh and his team of advocates dealt more than 900 claims where decrees/execution orders were issued by the court of judge R K Mittal, the agency said.

Bidyanand Singh and his team of "opened and operated" bank accounts of claimants "without" their knowledge.

They "used" the signatures and thumb impressions of these claimants to "transfer" the claim amount received from the railways to their own accounts or made cash withdrawals, the ED alleged.

Amount of Rs. 10.27 crore was transferred from the claimants' bank account to the bank accounts of the advocates which is nothing but the "proceeds of crime" generated by them, it said.

The advocates and their wives, the agency said, "acquired" 24 immovable properties in their name and in the name of a company "controlled" by them by utilising this proceeds of crime. These assets are located in Patna, Nalanda and Gaya in Bihar and in Delhi.

The ED early this year had raided the premises of Judge R K Mittal and other accused, including the advocates, in Patna and Nalanda in Bihar and Mangalore in Karnataka.

Bidyanand Singh, Parmanand Sinha and Vijay Kumar were arrested by the ED and they are currently in judicial custody.