ED attaches Rs 1.7-cr assets of Kolkata-based CGHS clerk under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 1.7 crore of a CGHS clerk working in Kolkata in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged disproportionate assets case, the agency said on Thursday.

The central agency said a provisional order for attaching bank balance, post office accounts, LIC policy, a car and two flats have been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Snehasish Kar and his family members.

Kar, the agency said in a statement, is an upper division clerk in the office of the Additional Director, Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), located at Esplanade East in Kolkata.

While one of the attached flats is in Kar's name, the other is owned by his brother but was purchased by the accused and ownership was transferred later in the guise of a gift, the ED said.

The agency said it launched a PMLA probe against Kar on the basis of a CBI FIR alleging that the accused had amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 53.73 lakh by abusing his official position.

Kar had joined the CGHS, Kolkata, as a casual worker (waterman) in 1981 and was made a regular staffer (nursing attendant) the next year, it said.

Since January 2017, the official had been working as an UDC (upper division clerk) and apart from his salary account, he had several accounts in banks and post offices in his name and in the names of his family members, the ED added.

The probe revealed that huge deposits of cash were made in these accounts and the accused was not able to explain about the source of these amounts, the agency said.

Investigation found that the official "was not withdrawing any amount from his salary accounts and was making his household expenses through illegally acquired money", it further said.

Further probe against the official is ongoing, the ED said.