Odisha Honeytrap Racket: Archana Nag & Husband Appear In CBI Court

Archana Nag and her husband Jagabandhu Chand

Bhubaneswar: Archana Nag, the main accused in the high-profile sextortion racket in Odisha, and his husband Jagabandhu Chand appeared in CBI Court here on Monday in connection with a money laundering case.

Archana was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in December last year.  She is accused of amassing over Rs 30 crore along with her husband between 2018 and 2022 by blackmailing prominent people in Odisha using sexually explicit videos.

The ED is probing financial transactions in the honey trap case and has already detected nearly Rs 2.5 crore deposited in cash in the couple’s accounts between 2017 and 2022.

In January this year, the central probe agency had attached a palatial house with imported interior decorations worth around Rs 3.64 crore belonging to Archana while two high-end vehicles worth over Rs 56 lakh were seized under the anti-money laundering law earlier.

The ED had recorded an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) for taking up an investigation under the provisions of the PMLA against Archana Nag, her husband Jagabandhu Chand, Shradhanjali Behera, and Khageswar Patra on the basis of two separate FIRs registered by Bhubaneswar Police.

It had also interrogated several people including Odia film producer Akshay Parija, filmmaker Pramod Swain, businessman Amiyakant Das, BJD MLA Sudhir Samal’s brother Gangadhar Samal, property dealer Prabhat Ranjan Pati, hotelier Siba Prasad Das and architect Ranjit Behera.