Enforcement Directorate attaches Rs 3.88 crore assets in PMLA case against IRS officer

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 3.88 crore in connection with a money laundering case against an IRS officer, who worked in the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department in Kolkata, and others.

The central probe agency said, in a statement, that it has issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attaching a residential property worth Rs 3.15 crore in Mumbai and bank balance of Rs 73.16 lakh.

The ED had pressed money laundering charges against Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Neeraj Singh and his alleged associate Govind Agarwal after going through a 2017 Kolkata Police FIR against them.

Singh, the then additional commissioner of I-T investigation in Kolkata, was accused by the Kolkata Police of "wrongfully using his power and capacity of a public servant and obtaining huge amount of money through illegal gratification", the ED said.

The probe found that "Singh kept Agarwal as his frontman and laundered the proceeds of crime through number of bank accounts of various companies", it said.

"Agarwal used to park the ill-gotten money of Singh into his companies. He also used to compensate for Singh's personal expenses, including flight tickets, travels and tours as well as hotel expenses," the ED said in the statement.

Singh had acquired a residential property in Mumbai in 2014 in the name of one of his relatives, the agency claimed.

The ED said for acquiring this property, Singh routed his "ill-gotten money" through a number of companies floated by Agarwal and finally placed them into the accounts of his relative in guise of loans extended from a company.

"Singh possessed and used bank accounts of his relatives which were utilised for acquiring proceeds of crime," it added.