Coal scam probe: ED files five new FIRs

New Delhi, July 5

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered five fresh money laundering cases against firms in various parts of the country as part of its criminal probe in the coal scam case.

The latest FIRs have been lodged by the Central probe agency against firms based in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Delhi, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, official sources said.

They said the ED took cognisance of existing CBI FIRs against these firms before launching separate cases under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

With these new cases, the agency has till now registered over 40 criminal cases in this probe, investigated parallely by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

They agency will now begin the process of issuing summons to the executives and owners of these firms to record their statements even as it plans to attach some assets of these firms under anti-money laundering laws, they said.

The CBI has also registered close to four dozen cases under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

ED, the sources said, had already scrutinised a number of documents and financial statements of these firms, after taking them from CBI, before the latest criminal charges were pressed.

The agency has also questioned former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao who has been named along with other private parties in one of the coal scam probe cases. It has also seized assets worth nearly Rs 200 crore as part of these investigations till now.

“Some more attachments of assets, including immovable properties and fixed deposits of those individuals and companies named in the ED FIRs, will be done,” the sources said.

While the Supreme Court is monitoring the probe of both ED and CBI, the special investigation team (SIT) on black money too is reviewing the overall investigations and coordination between the two central agencies in these cases. — PTI