Bhopal, Feb 6 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday that it has provisionally attached properties of former Divisional Engineer of Western Railways late Ved Prakash Srivastava and his wife Vibha Srivastava under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED said the properties provisionally attached includes two residential plots in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh and 22 other immovable properties and fixed deposits and bank balance, totalling more than Rs 1.58 crore.
The central probe agency said that action was taken following an investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Ved Prakash Srivastava, the then Divisional Engineer of the Western Railways’ Rajkot Division, for acquiring disproportionate assets using his official position.
The ED said the investigation revealed that the unaccounted cash generated from corrupt activities was first retained and used outside the banking system for day-to-day expenses, as reflected by minimal cash withdrawal from bank accounts.
“Thereafter, portion of the Proceeds of the Crime were deposited into large number of bank accounts held in the names of family members, thereby diffusing the money trail. These funds subsequently converted into fixed deposits, investments and used for the acquisition of immovable properties, including residential plots, in the names of family members who had no independent source of income,” the ED said in statement.
After filing an FIR in 2018, the CBI had conducted searches at the residence of Ved Prakash Srivastava in Jabalpur for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Before being transferred to Rajkot in December 2017, Srivastava, a native of Jabalpur, was posted as executive engineer (construction) in Mumbai.
The CBI had then also made Ved Prakash Srivastava’s wife Vibha Srivastava a co-accused, and a charge sheet was filed before the special CBI court in Jabalpur in May 2023.
–IANS
pd/khz
