ED attaches assets of Jharkhand Maoist operative

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has attached assets worth over Rs 2 crore of a Jharkhand-based Maoist operative as part of a money laundering probe against him and others.

The frozen assets are in the form of vehicles and are held in the name of Bindeshwar Ganjhu alias Bindu Ganjhu and his firm Maa Gange coal trading pvt. ltd.

The central probe agency said its criminal case against Ganjhu and others, under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is linked to the extremists collecting funds through extortion of contractors, coal traders, coal transporters in the Magadh-Amrapali coal block area of Jharkhand.

The state police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are also probing the accused and have filed multiple charge sheets against them.

Bindeshwar Ganjhu, the ED said in a statement, "used to collect levy from transporters and delivery order holders in Magadh-Amrapali coal block area in connivance with other extremists of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) in Chatra district of Jharkhand."

"Ganjhu, being a member of the outlawed organisation TPC, was closely associated with top leaders and acquired proceeds of crime in his name as well as his firm which were projected and claimed as untainted properties," it claimed.

The total value of assets attached under the latest order is Rs 2.03 crore while immovable and movable properties worth Rs 2.89 crore belonging to Ganjhu and an another person Pradeep Ram and their two firms were earlier attached in this case, it said.

The total attachment of assets in this case now stands at Rs 4.92 crore.