ED seizes Bachcha Rai properties
2 min readPatna: The Patna zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday seized assets worth Rs 4.53 crore belonging to Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai, a prime accused in the topper scam of 2016.
This is the first attachment by the agency in the case, almost 11 months after it registered it under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on the basis of the chargesheet filed by Bihar Police. Undeserving candidates were found to have secured top positions in various streams of the intermediate or Plus II board examinations conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) in the scam.
The attached property include 29 plots worth over Rs 3 crore book value located at Lalganj, Mahua, Bhagwanpur and Hajipur in Vaishali. A two-storeyed house at Hajipur and a flat in Patna, besides deposits in various banks totalling over Rs 1.10 crore, also figure in the list of attached assets.
“Bachcha had laundered his illicit wealth by amassing property in his own name, as well as in the name of his wife Sangeeta Rai and daughter Shalini Rai. They could not explain the source of their income. Besides, the proceeds of crime were also laundered by a trust run by Bachcha’s family members,” an ED source said.
The source added that the sleuths found out that most of the immovable property were purchased in cash without any corresponding withdrawal from bank accounts of Bachcha and his family members.
Bachcha and his wife are also said to have manipulated their income tax returns. They filed returns for 2015-16 and 2016-17, six months after the FIR was lodged against them and showed their agricultural income around 70 times more than the previous years. The couple also declared capital investment in business operation, the source of which could not be established and were discovered to be the proceeds of crime.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
