ED attaches assets worth Rs 2.16 crore of the firm represented by JMM leader, ex-BJD and BJP MLAs
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday provisionally attached assets worth Rs 2.16 crore of a company owned by a JMM leader, a former BJD MLA and a former BJP MLA in a money laundering case.
The former MLAs have been identified as Ramchandra Hansadh (Former MP, Mayurbhanj), Subarna Naik (Former MLA, Keonjhar Sadar) and Hitesh Kumar Bagratti (Former MLA, Khariar, Nuapada District).
While Hansdah was with the BJD earlier, he recently joined JMM. He had been suspended from BJD in 2014 following his arrest by the CBI in a chit fund case. He joined JMM last year. Naik too was suspended by the party that year after his arrest by the CBI. Bagartti, who was with the BJP till 2014, too was arrested by the CBI that year. He had already been suspended by the party at the time of his arrest.
The attachments were made in connection with a case against M/s Nava Diganta Capital Services Limited and its other group companies, represented through their directors Anjan Kumar Baliyarsingh, Pradeep Kumar Patnaik, Kartikeya Parida and former directors Hansdah, Naik and Bagrati.
According to ED, the attached assets include outlying balances worth Rs 16 lakhs, as available in 48 bank accounts maintained at IDBI and Indian Bank as well as immovable assets in the form of two land parcels worth Rs 2 crore at Narendrapur Mouza, Puri and Kaipadar Mouza, Khordha, Odisha.
“During investigations under PMLA, it was revealed that M/s. Nava Diganta Capital Services Ltd. was collecting public deposits by issuing Redeemable Preference Shares and Non-Convertible Debentures (income debentures and wealth debentures) by fraudulently luring the gullible public on the pretext of giving higher interest by issuing money receipts and certificates to this effect without having any authorization whatsoever from any regulatory authority namely RBI, SEBI etc. to do such activities,” the ED said in a statement.
According to the agency, the company was found to have misappropriated the invested amount and diverted funds by way of giving loans and advances to its other group concerns, namely M/s Nava Diganta Projects Ltd and M/s Nava Diganta Properties Ltd.
