ED attaches jailed rly engineer’s properties worth ₹3.40 crore

The accused Chandeshwar Prasad Yadav is currently lodged in jail for alleged involvement in misappropriation of 100 condemned wagons and thousands of wheels sets, apart from other excluded fittings of Eastern Railway’s Jamalpur Railway Workshop, estimated to be worth ₹34 crore.

The Patna zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth ₹3.44 crore belonging to a jailed senior section engineer (SSE) of Jamalpur Railway Workshop and his family members under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a Disproportionate Assets Case.

The ED attached ₹17.25 lakh cash deposits in various bank accounts on the name of the engineer’s wife and their two sons (AFP/FILE)

The accused SSE, Chandeshwar Prasad Yadav, is currently lodged in jail for alleged involvement in misappropriation of 100 condemned wagons and thousands of wheels sets, apart from other excluded fittings of Eastern Railway’s Jamalpur Railway Workshop, estimated to be worth ₹34 crore.

The attached properties include five immovable properties worth ₹1.19 crore, ₹35.85 lakh investment in seven mutual funds, four insurance policies worth ₹7.97 lakh, and 29 fixed deposits worth ₹1.64 crore. The ED also attached ₹17.25 lakh cash deposits in various bank accounts on the name of his wife and their two sons.

The ED, during investigation found that Yadav, while posted and functioning as SSE during the period of January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017, acquired huge assets, both movable and immovable, either in his name or in the name of his family members, is disproportionate to all his known sources of income to the extent of ₹3 crore, and which he could not satisfactorily account for.

The investigation also revealed that the SSE’s salary of ₹38 lakh, received by him during the aforementioned period, he acquired cash to the tune of ₹2.37 crore from unexplained sources.

During interrogation last month, Yadav confessed that he, along with one Devesh Kumar, proprietor of Shri Maharani Steels, Patna, embezzled the condemned wagons and scrap of other excluded fittings, for which he received money from Devesh.

The ED had started probing the case following an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 9, 2018, following a complaint by senior deputy general manager (DGM) and vigilance officer of the Eastern Railway against Patna-based Shree Maharani Steels, unknown railway officials posted at Jamalpur and unknown private persons.