Cuttack: A high-level meeting of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the black money issue was held at the residence of Justice Arijit Pasayat, the SIT’s vice-chairman, at Telanga Bazaar here Saturday.
Justice Pasayat said a huge amount of black money was seized from Maoists across the country from places like Lucknow, Kolkata and New Delhi. Narcotic drugs like ganja were also seized from the Reds while they were being smuggled from Malkangiri district to neighbouring states.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have tracked down the black money and narcotic items traded by the Reds. It shows that Maoists are funding operations with black money and contraband. A high-level probe will be launched by regarding this, Justice Pasayat said.
The ED seized the black money of Dhalasamanta brothers and exposed the financial transactions of Sarathi and Sura Baba here in the state.
The SIT also discussed the fines collected from mining scammers and the pending fines which have to be collected from mining lease holders after the Supreme Court’s order on it.
Apart from this, tax worth Rs700 crore was realised from six educational institutes of neighbouring Odisha.
Other institutes are also under the scanner as black money has been reportedly invested there.
A status report was also submitted at the SIT meet about the ponzi scam of the state. The Bhubaneswar CBI has filed 29 chit fund cases in the state. The investigating team has submitted charge sheets in 15 cases.
Probe is going on into six chit fund firms of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra, CBI Joint Director Pankaj Srivastav said.
ED Special Director Jogesh Gupta said the ED had attached around Rs1 crore from four chit fund companies. The ED is hopeful of getting the court’s green signal for confiscating their properties, Gupta said.
At the high-level meeting officials of the CBI, ED, DRI, SEBI, Income Tax department, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Excise and Customs Department, police, Crime Branch, Vigilance and Mining department were present.
It is worth mentioning that the SIT has filed six status reports in the Supreme Court till now.
PNN
