The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached a property worth ₹1.94 crore of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in a corruption case. The total attachment in the case stands at ₹6 crore.
The money laundering case is based on an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Mr. Chautala and others for allegedly acquiring assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. The CBI has filed a chargesheet against him and his sons, Abhay and Ajay Chautala, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the CBI, Mr. Chautala had acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of ₹6.09 crore from May 24, 1993, to May 31, 2006. “Investigation revealed that Abhay Singh Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala had also acquired assets disproportionate to their known sources of income to the tune of ₹119. 69 crore and ₹27.74 crore, respectively,” said the Directorate
The ED alleged that Mr. Chautala had acquired immovable properties in Delhi and Panchkula. He also got constructed a residential house at Sirsa in Haryana during the check period from the money received from undisclosed sources.
“He had disclosed properties so acquired in the affidavit filed before the Returning Officer in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections in 2005 and 2009, thereby projecting publicly the tainted properties as untainted,” it said.
The agency had earlier attached assets worth ₹46.96 lakh of Mr. Chautala, which has been confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. “Further properties of Mr. Chautala to the tune of ₹3.68 crore were also attached in April 2019,” said the ED.
The Directorate had filed a chargesheet against the former CM in July 2018. The court took cognisance of the charges in November last year. Later, a supplementary chargesheet was also filed.
