BHUBANESWAR: The enforcement directorate (ED) has attached assets worth ₹5.4 crore in a money laundering case registered against a bureaucrat couple and a former MLA of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) who were arrested on charges of amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income, officials said.
ED officials said properties worth ₹3.94 crore belonging to Odisha finance service officer Nalini Prusty, a former accounts officer with the Odisha school education programme authority, and her husband Bijaya Ketan Sahoo, a former tehsildar, were attached under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in connection with a case registered against the couple in 2018.
The couple were arrested and later released on bail. ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of a first information report (FIR) lodged by vigilance officials under Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, against them on charges of possessing disproportionate assets worth ₹5.05 crore.
ED deputy director Sandeep Ahuja said investigations revealed that Nalini Prusty and Bijaya Ketan Sahoo invested their unaccounted money in acquiring various properties and bank investments in their name and in the name of Debaki Prusty, the mother of Prusty. The properties included two flats in Bhubaneswar worth ₹1.8 crore, furniture and interior articles valued at ₹1.34 crore, a flat in Puri town estimated at ₹21.4 lakh, a triple-storied building in Bhubaneswar worth ₹49.6 lakh, six plots in Bhubaneswar and Jatni worth ₹58 lakh, fixed deposits in four banks worth ₹1.24 crore, deposit of ₹22 lakh in saving bank accounts, household articles of ₹46 lakh and gold, diamond jewellery estimated at ₹40 lakh.
Soon after the Vigilance lodged the case, Prusty’s mother ended her life by jumping from the roof of an apartment.
{{/usCountry}}Soon after the Vigilance lodged the case, Prusty’s mother ended her life by jumping from the roof of an apartment.
{{/usCountry}}In another case, ED attached assets worth ₹1.52 crore of former MLA and BJD leader Anam Naik in connection with a money laundering case registered against him. Naik, a BJD MLA from Bhawanipatna between 2009 and 2014, was arrested in January 2020 by the Odisha Vigilance on charges of amassing disproportionate assets to his known sources of income. Following it, ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR lodged under Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act.
ED officials said Naik has invested his income in acquiring various properties and bank investments in his name and in the name of his family members.
“Now that property is attached, we would file a prosecution complaint before a PMLA Court. Post-trial if the accused are convicted then the properties would be confiscated. Till then no financial transaction can be done with these properties,” said the ED deputy director.