Assets case: PWD officials laundered money too, says ED

PATIALA: The enforcement directorate (ED) has detected huge amount of money laundering by a public works department (PWD) executive engineer (XEN), a junior engineer (JE) and a retired superintendent against whom the vigilance bureau (VB) had registered disproportionate assets cases.

The VB had registered five FIRs in 2011 and 2012 against the accused following embezzlement in construction of a judicial court complex at Budhlada in Mansa district. The bureau found that the accused had embezzled ₹4.75 crore in connivance with private contractors by forging bills. The ED, which had launched a parallel probe into the matter 2014, has filed a criminal case against these officials and their nine relatives.

The vigilance bureau had booked XEN Joginder Singh, JE Sarabjeet Singh and retired superintendent Satpal Bansal for corruption. Joginder and Sarabjeet were suspended after the case was registered against them.

Taking ahead the investigation, the ED found that Joginder purchased properties in the name of his wife, in-laws and other relatives. The directorate has named them in a criminal complaint filed under Section 45(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in the special CBI court of Punjab, which also hears PMLA cases.

The ED investigations revealed that the accused had laundered money and it seized around Rs 8 crore from them while the probe is still on.

ED assistant director Deepak Chauhan said 12 people have been charged with money laundering. They included XEN Joginder Singh, JE Sarabjeet Singh and retired superintendent Satpal Bansal. The other accused are close family members of these officials in whose name the properties were acquired by them.

Joginder and Satpal connived by preparing forged letters of credit and bills of works granted without authorisation. Besides, Joginder also siphoned off ₹56-lakh compensation amount by transferring it to his own bank account.

Similarly, Sarabjeet Singh siphoned off more than Rs 6 crore by embezzling government funds by fraudulently effecting payments to contractors.

The accused were found to have assets disproportionate to their income, said ED officials who have filed a challan with more than 2,000 supporting documents.

The ED has detected residential and commercial properties of the accused at various places, including SAS Nagar, Mullanpur, Barnala and Patiala.“Properties worth Rs 8 crore, including 163 gold biscuits weighing 4.094 kg and gold jewellery (330 gm), of the accused have been attached by the court,” Sarao said.

DIRECTORATE HAD LAUNCHED A PARALLEL PROBE IN VIGILANCE CASES AGAINST MANSA XEN, JE AND SUPDT; PROPERTY WORTH ₹8 CRORE ATTACHED