ED files plaint against own ex-Dy Director in graft case

New Delhi, December 7

The Enforcement Directorate has filed prosecution complaints in a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Chandigarh against its own former officer, his wife and a lawyer for allegedly accepting Rs 3.5-crore to Rs 4.5-crore bribe from Unipay Ponzi Schemes’ promoters, who have been accused of duping investors. 

In a statement, the ED said the complaints were filed on Wednesday against former Deputy Director Gurnam Singh, his wife Dalip Kaur and lawyer Puneet Sharma, who represented the promoters in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. 

The ED informed the court that during the course of investigation into the cases of M/s Unipay2U Marketing and Unipaygateway2U Trading, it was found that Sharma was “in collusion with Singh”, who was “in the habit of misusing his official position for personal benefits”. 

“Singh extracted money from the investors through Sharma by misrepresenting and making false claims of his proximity to the people in positions of power, authority and at the same time took bribe from the promoters of Ponzi schemes. He received bribe from the accused with a fraudulent promise to settle the writ petition in the High Court as well as an ongoing investigation in the case registered by ED.” The proceeds of crime illegally obtained by Singh were structured and layered in the form of immovable properties in his name and in the name of his wife, which were later on projected as being untainted, the ED said in the complaint. — TNS