Ranchi, Aug. 1: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached property worth Rs 54 lakh belonging to tainted former minister Bhanu Pratap Shahi, who has already been charge-sheeted for laundering Rs 7.97 crore by misusing his official position in the Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren governments between 2005 and 2009.
The attached properties include two shops - one registered in his name and the other allegedly procured by Shahi in nephew Prashant Kumar Singh's name - each worth around Rs 17 lakh at Prabodh Tower on Lake Road in Ranchi.
Shahi's two bank accounts with the SBI in Doranda, where around Rs 9 lakh was deposited till this date, were frozen.
The Bhawnathpur MLA had acquired 16 decimal worth Rs 5 lakh in Sasaram district of Bihar, apart from land at Robertganj in Sonbhadra district (UP). The agency have attached all those plots. "The properties seized are part of the proceeds of the crime," said a senior ED official.
This the second time when the ED, probing the charges of disproportionate assets and money laundering against the former health minister, attached properties of Shahi, who got bail from Jharkhand High Court in May after staying in judicial custody for more than a year.
In 2014, the agency had seized his properties in Garhwa, Ranchi, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Gurgaon.
Three plots at Hotwasi Hatia dam site in Ranchi, four plots at Jangipur village in Garhwa district and the building of Maa Nagina Shahi Mahavidyalaya were attached then. It also seized Rs 31 lakh deposited in the bank account of Dehati Sthapana Trust being run by him.
These apart, the ED had zeroed in on five immovable properties valued at Rs 2.84 crore owned by Shahi and his associates in Gurgaon.
Shahi had represented Bhawnathpur Assembly constituency from 2005 to 2009, but lost the seat in 2009 Assembly polls. He regained it in the 2014 state polls.