ED attaches more assets of Sarathi Ashram in Odisha

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday attached three more plots of land, owned by Sarathi Ashram and Satyam Charitable Trust, at Garapur on the outskirts of Kendrapara town.

The central agency had attached 26 immovable properties of the trust in July this year.

According to official sources, the ED attached the properties of the trust managed by Sarathi Baba under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002.

The self-styled godman was in jail for four years and released on July 25 this year after the Orissa High Court granted him conditional bail, Kendrapara sub-divisional police officer Rajiv Lochan Panda said.

Sarathi Baba alias Santosh Roul was arrested by the crime branch personnel in August, 2015 from his ashram on charges of sexual assault, forgery, exploitation of women and others.

As directed by the crime branch, state government officials in Kendrapada had conducted an assessment of the properties owned by the ashram in Barimula in 2015 and found a two-storey guest house and other assets, spread across 2.5 acres of land.

After his arrest, construction works of the ashram at Madhurakanda, Aul and Rajnagar in Kendrapara district had also been stopped.

Officials of the crime branch had also frozen several bank accounts of Sarathi Baba and Satyam Charitable Trust, police said.