Bhopal, Dec 30 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bhopal Zonal Office, has provisionally attached immovable properties worth approximately Rs 3.38 crore belonging to Santosh Paul, Regional Transport Officer (RTO), and his wife Rekha Paul, senior clerk in the Transport Department of Madhya Pradesh government.

The attachment has been carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the investigating agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ED launched its investigation following an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhopal, against Santosh Paul under Sections 13(1)(b) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018).

The FIR alleged that the public servant had accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, it said.

Detailed probes by the ED established that during the check period, Santosh Paul and Rekha Paul had a verified lawful income of only Rs 73.26 lakh. However, the couple acquired movable and immovable assets and incurred expenditures totalling around Rs 4.80 crore. This created a glaring discrepancy, resulting in disproportionate assets valued at approximately Rs 4.06 crore, the agency further said in the statement.

Further investigation revealed suspicious financial patterns, including structured and repeated cash deposits into their bank accounts immediately prior to loan EMI payments. These transactions indicate deliberate attempts to place and integrate unaccounted cash into the formal banking system, a classic method of laundering illicit proceeds, it said.

The provisionally attached properties, identified as Proceeds of Crime, comprise residential houses, residential plots, agricultural lands, and commercial shops, all located in Jabalpur district.

The action highlights the ED’s ongoing efforts to curb corruption among public servants and recover assets acquired through illegal means. By attaching these properties, the agency has effectively frozen assets suspected to have been built from corrupt practices in the state’s Transport Department.

The investigation remains in progress, with the ED likely to explore deeper financial trails and potential involvement of other individuals. Such cases of disproportionate assets continue to expose systemic vulnerabilities in public administration, eroding public trust and diverting resources meant for development.

–IANS

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