ED raids its ex-dy director in ₹600-crore ponzi scam

NEW DELHI/ CHANDIGARH: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday searched the premises of one of its former Deputy Directors and others in connection with a money laundering probe in an alleged Rs 600 crore ponzi scam case. ED officials said that the houses of its former officer Gurnam Singh, advocate Puneet Sharma and another person in Chandigarh and Mohali were raided since the morning under the provisions of the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Singh has been the investigating officer of the ponzi case and was relieved from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in January last year. Officials claimed that Singh, the exdeputy Director of the ED’S Chandigarh zone, was allegedly taking bribes to the tune of about Rs 4 crore- Rs 6 crore in purported connivance with Sharma.

The raids have been launched to gather more evidence in this context, they said. ED Director Karnal Singh had issued stern directives that instances of corruption in the organisation would not be tolerated.

The agency had conducted multiple searches in this case last year and had also arrested the absconding agent of the alleged chit fund firm under scanner, Kamal K Bakshi, under the anti-money laundering law. The case, the ED had said, pertains to thousands of investors who were “systematically lured and cheated to the tune of more than Rs 600 crore by floating ponzi or pyramid schemes assuring exorbitant returns”.

In a separate development, the Government has created a new post of Principal Special Director in the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) recently cleared the appointment of Simanchala Dash, an Indian Revenue Service officer of 1988 batch.

According to the new set up, all six zonal heads of the ED would now report to the newly appointed Principal Special Director. Notably, Dash had earlier worked with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as his private secretary. Dash had served as private secretary to the Finance Minister till July 2017 before he was shifted to Income Tax department.