The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested liquor merchant Rajesh Jalan in a money laundering case.

An official source said Jalan was arrested following his interrogation at the ED zonal office here in Rajgarh Road on Wednesday evening.

Jalan is a prime accused in the excise scam that took place in Assam during the tenure of the previous Tarun Gogoi government.

An official source said he was allegedly influencing and intimidating witnesses who were questioned by the ED in connection with a case registered against him at the directorate’s Guwahati zonal office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

“The witnesses, who are supposed to have information about Jalan’s role in the case, were afraid to utter a single word against him because of intimidation. Jalan was not cooperating in the investigation and giving evasive replies to the queries posed by the ED and that made his arrest and custodial interrogation necessary,” the source said.

He was produced in a designated PMLA court here and had been remanded in ED custody for four days.

The ED’s investigation revealed that Jalan had laundered his ill-gotten money and acquired a number of properties in and around Guwahati and Tinsukia. The source said roles of many excise and tax officials in the scam had also come under the ED scanner.

Though the CID is probing the excise scam and had arrested Jalan in December 2016, in this connection, the ED is investigating the money laundering part of it.

Jalan was on bail in the CID case.

“The investigation conducted so far has established that Jalan was the mastermind of the scam and was running the business activity of M/s BG Bonded Warehouse here in an unauthorised manner,” the source said.

“The actual licensee of BG Bonded Warehouse at Lokhra is Bonti Gogoi Pegu and she had illegally sub-let the licence issued to her by the state excise department to Jalan to carry out business of the warehouse,” he said.

During investigation, it was revealed that between 2012 and 2015, Jalan had allegedly evaded payment of excise revenue to the tune of Rs 19.86 crore and Rs 21 crore VAT by submitting fake and forged transport permits and challans fraudulently showing payments of excise duty on various consignments of liquor that were supplied from the warehouse to retailers of Kokrajhar.