The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 13.34 crore of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Amarendra Dhari Singh in a money laundering case linked to the fertiliser scam. It is being alleged that payment of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 685 crore were involved in the case. Amarendra was arrested by the central agency in June this year in the case but he was later granted bail on medical grounds. The ED has now confiscated his fixed deposit receipts valued at Rs 13.34 crore.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a corruption case in May in the alleged fertiliser scam linked with IFFCO and Indian Potash Limited. The 61-year-old Parliamentarian, who is the senior vice-president of Dubai-based Jyoti Trading Corporation, was also named in the FIR.
The CBI had registered an FIR against Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) CEO and Managing Director, Udai Shanker Awasthi, accusing him of corruption in the alleged fertiliser scam. The investigating agency had raided 12 locations after that.
It has been alleged that illegal commissions worth Rs 685 crore were given to the NRI sons of IFFCO CEO and Indian Potash Limited managing director PS Gahlaut as well as others by foreign suppliers between 2007-2014.
ED claims that the RJD MP, through his company Jyoti Trading Corporation, also received a part of the bribe money.
The law enforcement agency also said that around Rs 27 crore of the kickback money has been siphoned off.
“Such proceeds of crime were laundered by way of projecting the same as consultancy income, first in the hands of entities under the control of Dubai based Chartered Accountant Rajiv Saxena (an accused in Agustawestland case) and subsequently in the hands of entities controlled by India based Chartered Accountant Alok Kumar Agarwal and thereafter in the form of cash to Amarendra Dhari Singh,” India Today quoted an ED statement.
A chargesheet by ED against six accused including Amarendra and Alok Kumar was also filed in a special court on July 30 this year.
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