ED attaches Rs 2.95 cr assets of Jharkhand gangster

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it has attached assets worth over Rs 2.95 crore of Jharkhand gangster Akhilesh Singh and his wife in connection with a money laundering case against them.
It said a provisional order for attachment of assets, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), was issued by the central probe agency and it includes both immovable and movable properties.
The ED, in a statement, said it had registered a money laundering case against Singh and his wife Garima last year after taking cognisance of over 50 FIRs filed against them by the state police on charges of alleged extortion, murder, kidnapping among others.

Singh was arrested last year after a special Jharkhand police team had an encounter with him in Gurgaon near here.
He had also suffered bullet injuries on his legs in this encounter.
The couple are at present in jail in Jharkhand's Dumka district.

The agency said its probe found that Singh and his wife were using different aliases and "fictitious names" to operate bank accounts, transact and subsequently indulge into alleged money laundering and black money generation.
"Investigations have revealed that Singh and his wife were having 19 active accounts in different banks in their original name or in their fictitious names.

"Scrutiny of these bank accounts revealed that cash was regularly deposited in these accounts during the period when the same were operational," the ED said.
The huge deposits of cash, it said, in these accounts when they were not having any relevant source of income and that prima facie the cash was proceeds of crime generated from the criminal activities of Singh.
The total value of attached assets in this case is Rs 2,95,14,253, the agency said.