ED registers laundering case in Rs 35,000 cr-Goa mining scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case in the Rs 35,000-crore Goa illegal mining scam which was investigated by the M B Shah Commission for alleged large scale irregularities.
Officials said the ED has registered a complaint under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of the reports of the Commission and inquiry boards constituted in this regard and also an FIR of the Goa police Crime Branch filed last year in August.
Close to 80 companies involved in mining in the state have been named in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed by the agency, equivalent to a police FIR.

The Shah Commission has pegged the scam to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore in the state.
The Commission had submitted its report in this case in 2012, two years after it was constituted in 2010.
Investigators said the money laundering case has been registered "against government officials, mining companies and entities identified and mentioned in the report of Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court and the Justice Shah Commission report including the report of the Public Accounts Committee of Goa."

The ED, sources said, suspects that the alleged illegal mining has caused a loss of huge revenue to the exchequer by way of laundering of funds and hence it needed to probe it.

Justice Shah, who is now the head of the apex court appointed Special Investigation Team on black money, said he hopes the case is brought to a logical conclusion soon.
"We have completed and submitted the report to the satisfaction that it (Commission) was expected to do. I am happy to know that a case has now been registered," he told PTI.