ED to register money laundering case against Vikas Dubey’s family, associates

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it had sought details of properties of killed gangster Vikash Dubey, his relatives and associates from the Uttar Pradesh police as the agency was set to file a money-laundering case and probe alleged illegal transactions and tainted assets created.

Sources in the ED said the agency’s zonal office in Lucknow had written to the Kanpur police in this context on seeking all FIRs and chargesheets filed against him and his linked persons and the latest update in all these cases.

“Some police FIRs have been shared, while some more information is being obtained by the agency,” said a senior official.

“The dreaded criminal is believed to have invested in properties in the UAE and Thailand. Reportedly, he had also travelled to at least 14 countries in the past three years and might have invested his unaccounted money elsewhere,” the sources said, adding that he was also believed to have a dozen flats in parts of Uttar Pradesh under “benami” transaction or in the name of his family members and associates.

The sources added that the ED would soon register a criminal complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe proceeds of crime that were allegedly generated by Dubey, his associates and family members and if this money was subsequently used for the creation of illegal movable and immovable properties.

“As Dubey is dead, the scheme of the PMLA enables the agency to continue criminal probe against accomplices of the prime accused in laundering the proceeds of crime and the properties acquired as a result of this criminal activity. Section 72 of the PMLA provides for ‘continuation of proceedings in the event of death or insolvency’,” the sources added.

Dubey, 47, was shot dead on Friday by a team of UP police Special Task Force (STF), who claimed he was trying to flee after the car carrying him from Ujjain overturned on an isolated stretch of the highway on the outskirts of Kanpur city.

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