Bhubaneswar, May 21: Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday issued a string of orders attaching assets of about Rs 485crore of three mining companies and a chit fund firm in connection with its money laundering probes in Orissa.
In the first case, the agency’s Kolkata zonal office, under which Orissa falls, issued orders attaching assets worth Rs 400crore of three firms, their owners and associates in the Uliburu mining scam case which was also probed by Justice (retd) MB Shah Commission for alleged financial irregularities and corruption.
The agency, sources said, attached a number of immovable and movable assets of the accused firms in the case like Ms Deepak Steel, Ms Deepak Steel and Power and Ms Sneh Pushp and their directors like Deepak Kumar, Champak Gupta and Haricharan Gupta and a few others. “The assets attached under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in this case largely include land and buildings spread across Orissa and Kolkata. The orders in this regard were issued to the accused in the case today,” sources said.
The case pertains to Uliburu mines area located in Joda mining circle in Keonjhar district of the state where large-scale alleged irregularities were detected by the state mines department a few years back.
Justice Shah Commission, which probed a number of mining scam cases in Orissa and Goa, had termed this particular case as “one of the biggest illegal minings ever” and recommended a CBI probe into the matter.
ED had slapped PMLA charges after taking cognisance of the FIR filed in this regard by the Vigilance wing of the Orissa Police in 2012. The agency had also arrested two persons in this case — prime accused Deepak Gupta and his associate S Rout. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money had been reviewing the case for appropriate action to be taken by probe agencies like ED. PTI
