Kanpur/Lucknow: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted searches at the premises of jailed Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki and his family members in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said.
Solanki (44) is a four-time MLA from Sisamau in Kanpur district.
About five premises of Solanki including his residence in defence colony Jajmau, a linked property in Becon Ganj area, that of his jailed brother Rizwan are being covered by ED teams from the Lucknow zonal office, the sources said.
The premises of builders Shaukat Ali and Hazi Wasi Khan and SP leader Noori Shaukat apart from some others in Kanpur and a premises in Mumbai in Maharashtra were also raided early morning along with a security escort of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, they said.
Several handwritten diaries were found during the searches that purportedly show "illegal" receipts of funds worth about Rs 40-50 crore, the sources said.
Some documents showing investment in a Mumbai property worth more than Rs 5 crore were also recovered apart from Rs 26 lakh in cash, they said.
The search action was launched by the ED after it filed a criminal case against Solanki and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of multiple FIRs filed against them by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The police complaints pertain to charges of alleged extortion, land grabbing of private and government lands including Nazul property (non-agricultural land) using threat, muscle power and political influence.
The Sisamau MLA of the SP, led by former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, has been lodged in the Maharajganj prison since December 2022 in connection with several criminal cases. His father late Haji Mustaq Solanki was also a two-time SP MLA.
Solanki and Rizwan were arrested by police earlier for allegedly harassing a woman and setting her house on fire in a bid to grab her plot. They later surrendered before police.
The brothers, along with three others, were booked under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act by the state police.
Preliminary probe by the ED shows, the sources said, that during his period as being an MLA between 2016-2022, Solanki's assets increased by 282 per cent with "no corresponding increase in income".
Prima facie evidence shows that property held by the MLA is a "benami" property and fake business entities have been created to route the illegal money and give it a colour of legitimate business income, the sources said.
An analysis of the MLA's bank accounts shows receipts both by cash and fund transfers to the extent of about Rs 12.5 crore in seven years (FY 2015-16 to FY 2022-23) when the income declared by him in income tax returns averaged about Rs 6 lakh per annum, they claimed.
The sources said his alleged associate Haji Wasi was "involved" in the funding of the riots that took place at Kanpur in 2022.
Haji Wasi and his gang members are also alleged by the sources to have been involved in aiding illegal Bangladeshi migrants to settle in India by procuring Aadhaar cards on basis of false documents.
These people (Haji Wasi and associates) were also booked under the Gangster Act.
The Solanki brothers, the sources said, were residing in a three-floor bungalow spread over more than 1,000 square metres and the property is estimated to be worth more than Rs 10 crore.
The ED undertook a valuation exercise of the bungalow during the searches and may attach it under the anti-money laundering law if evidence of using proceeds of crime to construct it come to the fore, the sources said.
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