Bhopal, Feb 6 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has questioned ex-RTO constable Saurabh Sharma and his two associates, who have been arrested in connection with disproportionate assets case.
On Wednesday, a team of ED officials reached Bhopal’s central jail and questioned Saurabh Sharma for hours. The ED will question Sharma’s aides — Chetan Gaur and Sharad Jaiswal — in the coming days.
Notably, Sharma along with his two associates, who were arrested on January 28 and 29, are in judicial custody till February 17.
They were presented in the court by the MP Lokayukta Police after seven-day police custody expired on Tuesday, following which, they were sent in judicial custody.
Notably, besides MP Lokayukta and Income Tax Department, ED had also conducted two raids in the past two months (December and January) at various places of the state and other states, which are related to Saurabh Sharma and his relatives, friends, and business associates.
ED conducted first raids on December 27 last year and searched at least eight premises across the state covering Bhopal, Gwalior, and Jabalpur. The searches covered residential premises of Saurabh Sharma, Chetan Singh Gaur, Sharad Jaiswal, and others.
According to ED’s earlier statements, during the searches, movable assets in the form of fixed deposits (FDs) of more than Rs 6 crore was identified in the name of Chetan Singh Gaur, and bank balance of more than Rs 4 crore was found in the name of family members and companies of Saurabh Sharma.
The ED had recovered documents pertaining to immovable assets, properties worth over Rs 23 crore in the name of various companies and family members of Saurabh Sharma.
Searches revealed that such assets were allegedly purchased, acquired by Saurabh Sharma from illegal money obtained through corrupt practices while working as constable in the Transport Department.
On January 17, the ED again conducted raids and searches across several places including Pune, Gwalior and Bhopal and found cash and valuables worth Rs 52 lakh.
Earlier, the ED had taken statements of Chetan Singh, mother of Saurabh and his wife.
The ED had called many other accused like Sharad Jaiswal and Rohit Tiwari (another suspect) to appear at the office and to record their statements, but they never turned up.
While in a separate raid, the Income Tax Department had recovered more than 52 kg gold biscuits and cash amount of Rs 11 crore from an abandoned car parked in forest area in Bhopal’s Mendori area on December 19.
–IANS
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