ED QUESTIONS PRAJAPATI ABOUT FAMILY’S ASSETS

LUCKNOW: Former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Gayatri Prajapati was questioned about 59 properties worth ₹20 crore allegedly purchased by his family members without having any known source of income when he was the minister between 2012 and 2016 during the Samajwadi Party regime, said Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Thursday. \

He was questioned on the first day of his seven-day custody remand. The Lucknow district court had on Wednesday granted the seven-day custody to interrogate the former minister in a disproportionate assets cases registered by ED recently on January 15, 2021.

ED had registered the case against Prajapati on the basis of findings that surfaced during searches conducted at seven locations of the former minister, his family members as well as aides in Lucknow, Kanpur and Amethi on December 30, 2020. A senior ED official said the recovery of over 100 documents and registries of properties in Lucknow, Kanpur, Amethi, Sitapur and other places had provided the ground to initiate action on the DA charges against the former minister.

He said the former minister, however, have failed to justify the source of income to purchase these properties.

He said many properties were purchased in the name of his wife and daughter, who do not have any source of income before he became the mining minister.

Earlier, the ED had registered the FIR under sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Prajapati on January 7, 2019 on the basis of an FIR lodged by CBI.