Katihar Medical College chairman-cum-managing director Ahmad Ashfaque Karim would face the heat from Enforcement Directorate after police recovered unaccounted wealth from his house.

After the raid on Saturday during which the police stumbled upon Rs 2 crore, more wealth and property documents were recovered from an almirah in Karim’s Ashinana Nagar-Digha road residence in the presence of a magistrate on Monday evening.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said: “It is beyond the capacity of the district police to deal with the quantum of assets seized. Therefore, we have decided to recommend the case to the ED for better investigation.”

The SSP said the Patna police would shortly send the proposal to the economic offices unit (EOU), which, in turn, would forward the same to the ED.

A case of forgery and cheating was lodged against Karim at the Shastrinagar police station on the basis of a statement of some of the applicants, who were duped of their money by him on the pretext of getting them admitted to medical colleges.

Maharaj said he was also in touch with the senior officers of the income tax department to ascertain details of the income showed by the Karim.

“The state police are not empowered to initiate action against the accused under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” he added.

Sources said Karim had invested a huge amount in some of the West Asian countries. An investigating officer said Karim also purchased a house at Samanpura in Patna in the name of his relative a few years ago.

“The house has not yet been searched. We are chalking out the strategy to search the building,” he said, adding that strict vigil was being maintained on the building.

Inspector-general of police, EOU, Praveen Vashishtha said the unit would act as swift as it received the proposal from the Patna police. “It all depends on the evidence gathered against the accused,” he said, adding that such an amount had been seized for the first time in the state.

Manu said he has asked the investigating officer of the case to take 53-year-old Karim on police remand for further questioning.

Deputy superintendent of police (secretariat) Manish Kumar has been assigned the probe, he added.

The SSP said Karim’s office in Katihar has also been sealed.

His bank account with a nationalised bank in Patna having a deposit of over Rs 1 crore has been frozen, he said, adding that a laptop has also been seized from Karim’s house.

A diary seized from the possession of Karim’s associate Tanzeem, who was posted as clerk in the medical college, contained the list of the candidates, who had paid money to Karim for admission to the institutes.

“The laptop will throw more light on the Karim’s modus operandi and his illegal activities,” an investigating officer said.

The officer said the laptop contained the names of over 1000 persons, who were enrolled into the private medical colleges in Katihar and Kishanganj in the past decade.

While some of them have already passed the MBBS and were pursuing higher studies outside the state, others were enrolled to the two medical colleges under Karim, he said.