Money Laundering Case: ED Files 2nd Supplementary Chargesheet Against Ex-Cuttack MLA, His Wife – News18

Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month filed a second supplementary Prosecution Complaint against erstwhile Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal and his wife Laxmi Bilasani Biswal in connection with the ongoing money-laundering case, the agency said on Tuesday.

The probe agency also named M/s Seashore Securities Ltd., M/s Seashore Multipurpose Cooperative Ltd., their two directors Prashant Kumar Dash and Pravat Kumar Dash, and three others in the complaint.

The latest prosecution complaint was filed before the Special Court (PMLA) in Bhubaneshwar and the court has taken cognizance of the same.

The ED filed the first prosecution complaint in this case in 2016 and a supplementary complaint was filed a year later, the agency said in the release.

The anti-corruption agency then initiated a probe based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch of Odisha Police wherein a chargesheet was also filed subsequently, under various Sections of the IPC, Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011, the official communiqué stated.

The investigation was subsequently transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), SPE, SCB, Kolkata under the order of Odisha High Court.

So far, the ED probe revealed that the Seashore Group of companies had collected huge funds from the public through their registered cooperatives and these funds were further diverted to their other shell companies and various related individuals for concealing the source of such funds thereby layering the same.

The proceeds of crime were also channelised through the accused persons as named in the supplementary complaint filed by the Central Government agency.

ED said that further investigation into the matter is underway.