The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against a senior Income Tax department officer and others accused of conniving to defraud the NAFED of over Rs 167 crore.
The agency has registered an FIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against 1985-batch IRS officer Homi Rajvansh who was arrested by the CBI in this case in 2011 when he was posted as I-T Commissioner in Agra.
ED has made Rajvansh's wife and few "unknown persons" a party to the offence of money laundering and earning of illegal wealth allegedly through the proceeds of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) scam.
The probe, according to the FIR, will ascertain if the I-T officer accumulated disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 2.90 crore and then ploughed this amount for his personal benefit thereby generating "proceeds of crime".
The CBI, in its earlier complaint filed against Rajvansh has said that during his stint as the Additional Managing Director at the NAFED in 2005 he allegedly connived with private parties and issued loans without seeking any collaterals.
The CBI, in 2011, had also arrested four others who allegedly connived with Rajvansh in the cheating case.
The enforcement agency has begun ascertaining possible immovable assets held by the I-T officer even as it has identified a number of residential and official premises in the name of Rajvansh and his family members including bank balance in various accounts which could be attached under money laundering laws at a later stage of investigation.
The officer, sources said, will also be summoned soon to present his version in the case.
The officer was earlier also served by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Kolkata.
