ED attaches Chautala's flat; launches money laundering probe

Enforcement Directorate today attached a residential property of former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala under the criminal provisions of money laundering laws after he was recently convicted in a teachers recruitment scam.
This is the first attachment order by the agency against the five-time Chief Minister even as it prepares to attach assets acquired by him "illegally and beyond his known source of income" with an estimated value of over Rs 6 crore.
The first attachment order has been issued by the agency against him for a flat in Gurgaon on Delhi's outskirts and, according to ED, the house is in the "exclusive" name of Chautala with a total value of Rs 46,96,000.

The flat is located in Sector 28 of Tech-city under Haryana Jan Pratinidhi Cooperative Group Housing Society scheme.
The agency is probing the politician and his associates under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after it registered a case in this regard based on a CBI charge sheet filed in the same case.
The ED's attachment order can be challenged at the PMLA Adjudicating Authority here within 180 days of issue.

78-year-old Chautala, chief of Indian National Lok Dal, along with 54 others, is on interim bail for medical treatment after he was sentenced by a Delhi court in the 2000 Junior Basic Trained (JBT) Teachers recruitment scam.

On January 22, the trial court had convicted and sentenced Chautala and nine others, including his son Ajay Chautala, to 10 years' jail term for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers.
Among other convicts, 44 have been sentenced to four years in jail and one was sentenced to a five-year jail term.
All of them were held guilty of cheating, forgery, using fake documents as genuine, conspiracy under the IPC and for abusing their official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act.