ED charge-sheets MP IAS couple in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today filed a charge sheet against Madhya Pradesh-cadre IAS couple Arvind and Tinoo Joshi in connection with a money laundering case with regard to disproportionate assets.

The agency filed an over-15,000-page charge sheet, also called the prosecution complaint, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Bhopal against the couple and seven others including the couple's family members.

The agency had taken over the case after taking cognisance of a Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta police FIR and charge sheet against the couple, and it alleged that they possessed Rs 41,87,35,821 disproportionate assets "which was 3,151.32 per cent more than their known sources of income".

The ED had earlier attached assets worth Rs 7.11 crore of the couple in this case under the PMLA.

"Investigation revealed that an amount of Rs 3,21,58,975 has been invested in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance policies by Arvind Joshi in the name of his family members and majority of these insurance policies were purchased in cash or after depositing cash in the third-party accounts and then issuing cheques/demand drafts for investing in these policies.

"Arvind Joshi was assisted by the manager of ICICI Prudential Insurance, Seema Jaiswal, in this purchase of insurance policies against cash," the ED alleged in a statement.

Further, it charged, that "a coded handwritten record was also maintained by Arvind Joshi regarding the purchase and payments made for these policies".

The Joshi couple, from the 1979 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), first came under the radar of the probe agencies after the Income Tax Department raided their Bhopal residence in February, 2010 on charges of alleged tax evasion.

The ED said that the couple could not provide "satisfactory explanation" on the recovery of over Rs 3 crore cash at their premises during the tax department raids.