ED attaches assets worth Rs 3.50 crore of former Railway engineer in bribery case
Patna, Aug 22 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Guwahati Regional Office, has provisionally attached movable and immovable assets worth approximately Rs 3.50 crore belonging to the late Ranjit Kumar Borah, former Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer (Construction), Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Maligaon, Guwahati, and others in connection with a money-laundering case.
The attached assets include a residential flat in Patna, Bihar, valued at around Rs 3.28 crore, held in the name of Sonal Jain, along with a term deposit of approximately Rs 21.24 lakh in her name with Canara Bank.
The ED investigation stems from an FIR registered by the CBI’s AC-I, New Delhi, against Borah and others under Section 120-B of the IPC and Sections 7 and 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, as amended in 2018.
The case relates to allegations that illegal gratification was demanded and accepted from private railway contractors in exchange for extending undue favours in the award and execution of Northeast Frontier Railway contracts.
According to the investigation, the CBI intercepted the delivery of alleged bribe money on December 14, 2021, following which the accused were arrested.
The CBI subsequently filed a charge sheet in the case in 2022.
The ED’s investigation allegedly found that Borah had demanded and accepted bribes from Chintan Jain and Nayan Chandra Jain, proprietors of railway contracting firm M/s Sunshine, and had entrusted the alleged proceeds to them.
The agency further alleged that the proceeds of crime were used to purchase a flat at Platinum Towers, Gurugram, Haryana, in the name of M/s Sunshine.
The property was subsequently sold in 2024 for approximately Rs 3.5 crore.
According to the ED, the proceeds from the sale were subsequently layered through the bank accounts of M/s Sunshine, Chintan Jain and his wife, Sonal Jain.
The latest provisional attachment forms part of the ED’s ongoing investigation into the alleged generation, utilisation and laundering of proceeds of crime arising from the railway bribery case.
The ED stated that the proceeds from the sale of the Gurugram property were ultimately used to repay home loans taken for the Patna residential flat, registered in the name of Sonal Jain, and to create fixed deposits with Canara Bank.
According to the agency, these assets therefore represent the reinvestment and integration of alleged proceeds of crime generated in the bribery case involving the late Ranjit Kumar Borah.
Borah died on September 6, 2024, while the investigation was still underway.
The ED clarified that attachment proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are in rem proceedings, meaning they are directed against the allegedly tainted property rather than solely against an individual.
Consequently, the assets have been attached in the hands of their current holder, irrespective of the fact that Borah died during the investigation.
The ED said that further investigation into the case is continuing.
–IANS
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