Money laundering probe in Vyapam scam is on track: ED director

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering probe into the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh is “on track”, the agency’s chief said on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_2331824” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18[/caption] “The probe in this case is on track. We have made some attachments earlier (against the accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act),” ED Director Rajan Katoch told reporters in Kolkata. He was asked about the progress in this case in Madhya Pradesh after he came out of the ED office in Salt Lake in Kolkata. He was on a day’s visit to the East zone regional office of the agency based in the West Bengal capital. The central probe agency had registered a criminal FIR in March last year to probe alleged financial irregularities and laundering instances in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board scam, also called ‘Vyapam’ in Hindi, pertaining to admission of candidates and students in professional courses and state services in alleged connivance with officials and politicians. The agency had named former state Higher Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma and 27 others in its FIR. ED investigators, based in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, have also attached assets worth over Rs 3 crore of an alleged mastermind of the scam, Jagdish Sagar, in connection with their probe in April. Katoch, after reviewing various probes undertaken by the Eastern zone of the agency along with Special Director Yogesh Gupta, said the office was handling some of the most important cases in eastern India and was doing good. “I am happy that so far the investigations here have been very professional, fair and impartial and I hope that the officers will proceed like this in the future too,” he said while complimenting the money laundering and Hawala (illegal transfer of funds) probes done by the zone in the past. He said the two major ponzi scam cases being probed in Kolkata - Saradha and Rose Valley - are under investigation and the future course of action will be charted as per norms. PTI