The ED today said it attached assets worth Rs 77 lakh, under the anti-money laundering law, of a Bihar Maoist leader who made Rs 40 lakh cash deposits in the accounts of his son-in-law's family after allegedly extracting the amount from criminal activities like extortion.
The agency said it issued a provisional order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for attachment of properties of Binay Yadav alias Kamal Jee, a "notorious" top commander and active member of the Bihar regional committee of the CPI (Maoist), and his family.
Yadav was a resident of Deora village in the Aurangabad district of the state and had as many as five aliases like Kislay jee and Guru jee.
The Enforcement Directorate, in a statement, said it attached 6 plots (in Aurangabad district), 3 buses, a heavy earth-mover machine, a Bolero SUV, a mini van, a fixed deposit amount and 7 bank accounts in the name of Yadav's family and that of the family of his son-in-law.
The agency said its probe found that Yadav had "transferred the proceeds of crime in cash to his wife S Devi, his son-in-law Prem Kumar and Saryu Yadav, father of Prem Kumar".
It added that Yadav has deposited as much as Rs 40 lakh in cash in the bank accounts of Prem Kumar and Saryu Yadav.
"The Naxal leader was transferring his ill-gotten wealth for the prosperity and comfort of his daughter's family," a senior official said.
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The ED took over the case and slapped criminal charges under the PMLA against Yadav on a "proposal" sent to it by the the Bihar Police that contained a list of 46 FIRs and six charge sheets filed by the police in Aurangabad and Gaya districts.
"Yadav is notorious for his criminal activities in Aurangabad and Gaya and has accumulated huge wealth by extortion and collection of levy," it said.
This is the third such action by the central probe agency against Naxal commanders in Bihar and Jharkhand. It comes in the backdrop of the central government (the Home Ministry) asking agencies like the Income Tax Department, the CBI, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the ED to initiate action against them.
The ED said Yadav was accused of charges like killing of security forces personnel, murders, extortion, possession of arms and explosives.
"Proceeds of crime have been laundered to acquire movable and immovable assets in the names of family members and relatives," it said, claiming the Naxal leader "infused" Rs 1.5 crore funds in several bank accounts and immovable assets, largely in the name of his daughter's in-laws over a period of time.
"Several persons were directed to make huge cash deposits in the bank accounts of the son-in-law on the direction of Yadav's wife, which is a modus operandi to conceal the Naxal leader's ill-gotten wealth using the bank accounts of family members," the official said.
It said that son-in-law and Saryu Yadav filed "false ITRs (income tax returns) to conceal the proceeds of crime in order to project the tainted properties as untainted".
Yadav's wife also invested the black money acquired by her husband "for purchase of plots of land and she deliberately suppressed the value of land in sale deeds to conceal the tainted money.