The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen bank accounts, recurring deposits, and fixed deposits having a balance of Rs 3.95 crore in the Trans Arunachal Highway Project case, the agency said on Wednesday.
The federal agency’s move followed two search operations conducted on Tuesday in Arunachal Pradesh under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in respect of an investigation relating to the Trans Arunachal Highway Project. The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR dated February 2, 2019, registered by the Special Investigation Cell (vigilance) Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and sections 13(1)(a) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The FIR revealed that some government officials, in conspiracy with some private individuals, misappropriated the funds of compensation for the affected persons and beneficiaries of the Trans Arunachal Highway Project. The investigation by ED has revealed that multiple fake beneficiaries were created by some government officials in connivance with private individuals to cause wrongful gain to themselves and wrongful loss to the government exchequer.
