Odisha Honeytrap Racket: Commissionerate Police Hands Over FIR Copies To ED

Bhubaneswar: Twin City Commissionerate Police has handed over FIR copies of two cases registered against Odisha’s honeytrap kingpin Archana Nag at Nayapalli and Khandagiri police stations to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), only the ED can register a case to probe allegations of money laundering as proceeds of the crime. The agency can file an Enforcement Case Information Report under PMLA (PMLA) that empowers it for making arrests, conducting searches and seizures and attaching the proceeds of the crime.

According to sources, the ED officials have asked for a copy of the FIR filed by a former accomplice of Archana that led to her arrest early this month. Archana and her husband Jagabandhu Chand had allegedly amassed over Rs 30 crore in just four years.

Police found luxurious furniture worth around Rs 40 lakh, a fleet of luxury cars and SUVs like Toyota Fortuner and Mahindra Thar and imported interior decoration materials during the raid at her 3-storey palatial bungalow at Satya Vihar in the Palasuni area, which, they believe, was funded by her blackmailing activities. She also owns four high-breed dogs and a white horse.

The Commissionerate Police is also looking into the money trail and requested the Reserve Bank of India for details of the bank accounts of the couple and their statements for the last five years. “Police can’t investigate the financial transaction and financial irregularities in the case. If private people are involved, then ED or Income Tax department comes into the picture,” Police Commissioner Saumyendra Kumar Priyadarsi told Hindustan Times.

Notably, Archana appeared in SDJM court on Wednesday in the case registered against her at Nayapalli police station by a filmmaker against her and another woman alleging they demanded Rs 3 crore extortion by blackmailing him over his intimate pictures.

Archana was arrested on October 6 on the basis of the complaint lodged by the woman at Khandagiri police station, alleging that the former had forced her into blackmailing people by making their sex videos after taking some obscene photos of her by adding sedative to her food and drink.