ED attaches assets worth Rs 4.13 cr of ex-officials of GCA

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it has attached assets worth Rs 4.13 crore of former Goa Cricket Association (GCA) executives in connection with a money laundering case.

The Goa zonal office of the central probe agency issued a provisional order for attachment of properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Dayanand Narvekar, Chetan Desai, Vinod Phadke and Akbar Mulla.

The four officials, it said, wereofficer-bearers of the GCA.

The attached assets include an apartment, plots, shops and a fixed deposit amount of Rs 67,500, the agency said in a statement.

The ED had filed a PMLA case based on a Goa police FIR "for siphoning off the funds received by GCA from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)".

During 2006-07, it said, the BCCI forwarded grants/TV subsidy amounting to Rs 6.95 crore to GCA and out of this, an amount of Rs 3.87 crore was siphoned off by the four by "fraudulently" opening accounts with the Development Credit Bank located in state capital Panaji and Shiroda Urban Cooperative Society in Ponda.

The agency said its probe found that these people defrauded the GCA by opening illegal bank accounts in the name of the state cricket body and a portion of the grants/TV subsidy received from BCCI would be deposited in the accounts.

"Existence of these grants and the new bank accounts was neither disclosed in the monthly or the annual general body meeting nor mentioned in the balance sheet of GCA.

"Thereafter, the money so deposited would be withdrawn in cash using bearers cheques in name of fictitious persons," the ED said.

The investigation found out, it said, that Narvekar "siphoned off Rs 26 lakh" from the Federal Bank account of GCA in lieu of paying to a Mumbai-based firm for supply of sports equipment such as lawn mowers, bowling machines, cricket pitch cover and ground rollers.

However, the company confirmed that they have not supplied any equipment nor any payment was made to it by the GCA, the ED said.