Cash, gold found in abandoned SUV belong to ex-constable of MP transport department: ED

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Wednesday said cash and gold worth about Rs 52 crore seized from an abandoned SUV in Madhya Pradesh last year "belonged" to former state transport department constable Saurabh Sharma, who is being investigated on corruption charges.

The ED's declaration has ended months of speculation over the ownership of the cash and gold stash.

The ED, I-T Department and the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Police are the three agencies probing Sharma and the cache recovered from the vehicle on December 20 last year from an area in Bhopal.

The case began with the Lokayukta raiding Sharma first and recovered assets worth more than Rs 3 crore, including Rs 2.85 crore in cash, from his premises in Bhopal.

"In this case, Income-Tax Department had seized cash and gold from an Innova car belonging to Chetan Singh Gaur. ED investigation has revealed that the said cash and gold seized from Innova car belonged to Saurabh Sharma only," the federal probe agency claimed in a statement.

The statement did not elaborate further.

The vehicle was registered in the name of Gaur and he is stated to be linked to Sharma.

The tax department seized 52 kg of gold bars worth Rs 40 crore and more than Rs 11 crore in cash from the vehicle.

Sharma or his legal representatives could not be contacted immediately for a response on the charges made against him by the ED.

The issue has snowballed into a political controversy in the central state with the opposition Congress and the ruling BJP trading charges on rampant corruption in the transport department during their respective regimes.

The ED also said it has attached assets worth Rs 92.07 crore.

A provisional order for attachment was issued on Tuesday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it said.

The assets represent the "proceeds of crime" derived and obtained by Saurabh Sharma in his name or in the name of his relatives, associates apart from firms, companies, society, etc. "owned or controlled" by them, the agency said.

The linked associates or entities include Sharad Jaiswal, Chetan Singh Gaur, Aviral Building Constructions Pvt Ltd, Aviral Enterprises Pvt Ltd and U R Infrastructures Pvt Ltd, it said.

The ED said probe found that Saurabh Sharma "had purchased various movable and immovable properties in the name of his family members, friends, associates and also in the name of companies, firms, society by arranging unsecured loans from various unknown persons by laundering of ill-gotten money obtained and derived by him by commission of criminal activity relating to scheduled offences".

Sharma, Gaur and linked person Jaiswal were arrested in the case by the ED and they are currently lodged in jail under judicial custody. The ED case of money laundering stems from the Lokayukta Police FIR.

As per the Lokayukta Police, Sharma got appointed as a constable in the state transport department on compassionate grounds in 2015 and took voluntary retirement in 2023. His father, a government doctor, died in 2015, as per the special police establishment of the MP government.

The Lokayukta also alleged that Sharma earned money through corrupt means including setting up a school and hotel in the name of his mother, wife, sister-in-law and close associates Gaud and Jaiswal.