Guwahati, April 9: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started investigation into the money-laundering angle in the cash-for-jobs scam in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).
An official source told The Telegraph that the directorate started a separate probe after registering a money laundering case at its zonal office here based on the case registered by Assam police in connection with the recruitment scam.
The source said the agency has registered the case under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Telegraph had reported in its February 18 edition that the directorate was thinking of registering a case in connection with the scam.
"The directorate, however, has not named anybody in the FIR," the source said.
The agency has moved Assam police, seeking a copy of the chargesheet filed in the APSC case to prepare for a detailed investigation.
Dibrugarh police, which is probing the scam, submitted its first chargesheet against 10 persons on January 24. It named former chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul and two other APSC members - Samedur Rahman and Basanta Kumar Doley - as the main accused.
Two other accused - Paul's brother Rajeev and businessman Sudip Das, an aide of Paul - have been declared absconding. The remaining eight accused are lodged in Guwahati Central jail.
According to the police, Paul and his accomplices had allegedly collected between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 40 lakh from each candidate for selecting them for gazetted posts in government departments, including the Assam Civil Service and Assam Police Service, thus collecting several crores of rupees.
The source said the directorate will soon move the designated PMLA court here, seeking permission to question the accused in judicial custody. "The directorate's investigation will be confined to identifying the movable and immovable properties acquired by the accused with proceeds of crime and initiate the legal process for attaching the properties," he said.
In December 2013, Mukul Saikia, the then superintendent of police, vigilance and anti-corruption bureau, carried out a preliminary inquiry against Paul, which found that the former APSC chairman, in his name or through benami transactions, had allegedly acquired immovable properties not only in Guwahati but also in Delhi, Gurgaon, Calcutta and Bangalore.
The list of Paul's alleged properties submitted by Saikia in Gauhati High Court included a single-storey house at Shaktigarh Path in Bhangagarh, a first floor flat at Mandakini Apartment in Kalapahar, a commercial property at Labu complex in Dakhingaon and a flat in the name of his wife Sunanda at Srimantapur, among others.
His brother Rajeev owns a three-bedroom flat at Janakpur in Kahilipara and a printing press at Talukdar complex on Mazar Road at Bhangagarh, besides a number of vehicles. It is suspected that Rajeev had invested money belonging to his brother.
Sanjay Saha, Paul's driver, resides in a two-storeyed building on a plot of land measuring about three kathas at Lalganesh and owns a 1 bigha plot at Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati.
"Saha is suspected to have properties outside Assam too and a thorough ED probe can bring all these things to light," the source said.
