Odisha: ED Chargesheets Ex-BJD MLA In Money Laundering Case

Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it has filed charge sheet against Odisha’s former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Anam Naik in a money laundering case.

The central probe agency said the charge sheet was filed before a special court in Bhubaneshwar against Naik and a few others suggesting their conviction as well as confiscation of properties worth Rs 1.52 crore.

The court took cognizance of the matter on Thursday.

A former junior clerk and MLA from Bhawanipatna constituency, Naik was arrested in January 2020 by the Odisha Vigilance on charges of amassing disproportionate assets to his known sources of income.

The ED had launched its investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of an FIR registered at Vigilance police station in Koraput against Naik for possession of disproportionate assets worth Rs 1.54 crore.

Probe revealed that the former MLA has invested his ill-gotten income, which being over and above his known source of income, in acquiring various immovable properties and in making bank investments in his name and in the name of his family members, who were found to have actively assisted him in such layering and concealing of proceeds of crime.

The ED had already provisionally attached assets worth Rs 1.52 crore, which were confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority.