By IANS,
Patna : In a bid to check money laundering in Bihar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has lodged complaints against four senior suspended government officials, including an Indian Administrative Service officer, an official said Monday.
“It is first time that ED has booked four senior government officials, including an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer to check money laundering in the state,” an official of ED, said.
The first information reports (FIRs) were lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
According to ED officials, FIRs have been lodged against Senthil Kumar, a Bihar cadre IAS officer, former Rajbhasha director Dhruv Narayan Choudhary, chief engineer of minor irrigation Awadhesh Prasad Singh, and former state drug controller Yogendra Kumar Jaiswal.
The state vigilance investigation bureau (VIB) has already charge-sheeted Senthil Kumar for overlooking and manipulating the municipal rules, favouring select builders and firms, causing a loss of about Rs.8 crore to the state exchequer, during his tenure as the commissioner of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) between 2009 and 2010.
Other three officials are also in the vigilance net since 2007-08 for possessing assets worth crores of rupees disproportionate to their income during their tenures at different posts in government service.
The ED action has come after the central government’s decision to pay more attention to Bihar from where huge amount of illegal money is being invested across the country and abroad.
Officials said the FIRs would be followed by further investigation, which could lead to the attachment and confiscation of their movable and immovable property.
Under its new laws, the state government has not only confiscated houses of officers held guilty of corruption, but opened schools in such properties.