Rs 4.11 cr assets of MP engineer frozen for laundering

Engineer, Ashok Kumar Jain, of MP PWD was posted in Narsinghpur when the raid was carried out by MP's Lokayukta police

A special anti-money laundering court here has frozen over Rs 4.11 crore of cash and gold of a PWD Executive Engineer of Madhya Pradesh who was raided by the state's Lokayukta for possessing disproportionate assets in 2011.

The engineer, Ashok Kumar Jain, of Madhya Pradesh Public Works Department (PWD) was posted in Narsinghpur when the raid was carried out by MP's Lokayukta police.

A probe by the Lokayukta police had revealed that "Jain and his family members has incurred expenditure/acquired properties valued at Rs 5,05,41,427 during the test check period against their total income of Rs 38,08,088."

Relying on the probe by MP Lokayukta police and the Indore office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here confirmed the orders issued by the agency attaching Rs 4,11,56,780 of fixed deposits and gold ornaments of Jain.

"I am, prima facie, convinced that Ashok Kumar Jain was in possession of proceeds of crime...Generated by committing the scheduled offences.

"No doubt, these properties are involved in money laundering and therefore liable for attachment," Acting Chairman of the adjudicating authority of PMLA K Raamamoorthy said in his order.

The ED had registered a money laundering case against the government official in 2011 based on the Lokayukta police chargesheet in this case.

The special court took into account Jain's statements and documentary evidence placed by investigators on record.

"As regards the cash amount seized from his (Jain's) residence and lockers, he did not furnish any documentary evidence to show that his father had bequeathed so much of money in cash and the sizable amount of it in Rs 1,000 rupee denominations, circulation of which commenced only in 2000, whereas his father died in 1993.

Nor did he produce any will by which his father had bequeathed this much of money," the court order said.

The court, while issuing orders to attach the assets under the stringent anti-money laundering law, also relied on the fact that Jain did not give a "convincing answer nor documentary evidence" to claim legitimacy on the gold that was seized from him during raids nor did he intimate keeping such assets and bequeathing his father's property to state government as required under service rules as mandated by Rule 19 of the Madhya Pradesh Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1965.