The company had raided a quantity premises linked to Prajapati in Lucknow final yr. (File)
New Delhi/Lucknow: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed its first chargesheet towards former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati on Thursday even because it hooked up 60 belongings and over 50 financial institution accounts of his and his relations price over Rs 55 crore, officers stated.
The central company is probing the previous legislator, who held the mining portfolio within the Samajwadi Social gathering authorities led by Akhilesh Yadav, on cash laundering fees in a case linked to alleged possession of disproportionate belongings.
“A complete of 57 financial institution accounts with a complete steadiness of Rs 3.5 crore and 60 immovable properties price Rs 33.45 crore have been provisionally hooked up. The overall market worth of such properties as on date is over Rs 55 crore,” the Lucknow zonal workplace of the ED stated.
It additionally filed a prosecution grievance or chargesheet towards Prajapati and others earlier than a particular PMLA (Prevention of Cash Laundering Act) court docket in Lucknow on fees of amassing an enormous variety of properties within the names of his relations, benamis and corporations managed by his sons and dummy administrators.
Joint Director of the ED (Lucknow zone) Rajeshwar Singh stated additional investigation within the case is in progress and attachment of some extra benami properties situated in Mumbai, Lucknow and different locations can be executed and additional prosecution complaints filed towards different accused.
Prajapati was booked earlier this yr by the ED within the money-laundering case after analysing a vigilance FIR lodged towards him by the Uttar Pradesh police on fees of possessing disproportionate belongings. He was already being probed by the central company in a case of unlawful mining.
The company claimed that “Prajapati’s whole revenue when he was a minister (from 2013 to 2017) was solely Rs 72.38 lakh, together with his wage of round Rs 25.4 lakh”.
“He had proven a considerable rental revenue however most of it was discovered to be bogus and solely to inflate his revenue,” it stated.
The company alleged that the belongings “standing within the identify of the relations of Prajapati, the benami holders and numerous corporations whereby his sons are/have been administrators have been discovered to be price over Rs 36.94 crore (approx.), which is a number of occasions over and above their whole buying capability”.
Prajapati can also be accused of raping a lady and trying to molest her minor daughter, together with others.
He was arrested and despatched to jail on March 15, 2017 and has been in judicial custody since then. He was arrested by the ED too.
The company had raided a quantity premises linked to Prajapati and his relations in Lucknow, Kanpur and Amethi in December final yr.
It had then stated it had seized Rs 1.42 lakh in money, demonetised forex of Rs 11.50 lakh, stamp papers price Rs 5 lakh, property-related paperwork and computer systems.
It had claimed that “money deposits within the financial institution accounts of Prajapati’s relations and corporations have been discovered to be non-commensurate with their income-tax filings”.
“It was revealed that through the interval the accused (Prajapati) remained as a minister within the Uttar Pradesh authorities, his firm rose exponentially in web price, which he couldn’t clarify satisfactorily throughout his examination,” the ED had stated.
The company had stated each sons and the daughter-in-law of Prajapati had “filed a considerable undisclosed revenue to the tune of Rs 15.23 crore beneath the IDS-2016 and paid taxes of round Rs 6.85 crore”.
The Revenue Declaration Scheme (IDS) was a black money-declaration window launched by the Union authorities in 2016.
“Nonetheless, Prajapati feigned ignorance about any such undisclosed revenue,” the company stated.
