ED attaches property to the tune of Rs 11 cr in NH 74 scam

New Delhi, Sep 16 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties to the tune of Rs 11 crore belonging to several accused in the NH 74 scam case.

The ED in a statement said that it has attached properties worth Rs 11.62 crore of Barinder Singh, Balwant Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Vikramjeet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harjinder Singh, their family members and Fibremarx Papers Pvt Ltd of Jasdeep Singh Goraya under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED said that the attached assets consist of 23 immovable properties, which include agriculture and industrial land, commercial plots and buildings situated in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district, and movable properties comprising funds lying in five bank accounts.

The ED has registered a case on the basis of an FIR and chargesheet filed by the Uttarakhand Police against DP Singh and others, revenue officers, farmers and middlemen.

During probe by the Uttarkhand Police, it was found that DP Singh and Anil Shukla, the then SLAOs working in the capacity of competent authority of land acquisition, had entered into a conspiracy with other public servants, farmers and middlemen for misappropriation of government funds by way of granting compensation at non-agriculture rate when the compensation was much higher than the agriculture rate, on the basis of back dated order for changing the land use from agriculture to non-agriculture and their subsequent back dated entries in revenue records.

They projected the back dated documents as genuine at the time of distributing compensation, which resulted in the loss of Rs 215.11 crore.

The ED said, “During investigation, it was revealed that the farmers or land owners got higher compensation for their land at non-agriculture rate in connivance with revenue officials and utilised the excess amount to buy immovable property, making deposits in banks and giving commission to the revenue oofficials.”

It was also revealed that after receiving the compensation fraudulently, funds were diverted to the accounts of various individuals or entities.

“Barinder Singh and Balwant Singh diverted the proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 9 crore and Harjinder Singh to the tune of Rs 1 crore to the accounts of Jasdeep Singh Goraya and Mehak Kaur, which was utilised by them in their company Fibremarx Papers Pvt Ltd,” the ED said.

It was further revealed that Ramesh Kumar had created fixed deposits in the name of his family members out of the proceeds of the crime.

Earlier, the ED had attached properties belonging to DP Singh, land owners and middlemen to the tune of Rs 21.84 crore.

Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from IANS service.