The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday attached a national Capital-based property worth nearly Rs 2 crore of former Haryana Chief Minister OP Chautala in connection with a money laundering case.
The attached immovable property consists of land and farm house located in New Delhi worth Rs 1.94 crore owned by Chautala.
With this attachment, ED has attached properties of Chautala to the extent of the entire "proceeds of crime" generated through alleged acquisition of disproportionate assets amounting to Rs 6 crores (approximately).
The money laundering case was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by CBI against Om Prakash Chautala and others for acquisition of assets disproportionate to their known source of income. CBI has filed charge sheet against Om Prakash Chautala, his sons Abhay Chautala and Ajay Chautala under Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
Investigation conducted by CBI revealed that the senior Chautala had acquired assets disproportionate to his known source of income to the tune of Rs 6,09,79,026 during the check period from May 24, 1993 to May 31, 2006. Investigation also revealed that Abhay Singh Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala had also acquired assets disproportionate to their known source of income to the tune of Rs 119, 69,82,619 and Rs 27,74,74,260 respectively, the ED said in a statement.
During the course of investigation under PMLA it was revealed that OP Chautala had acquired Immovable Properties at New Delhi, Panchkula and also constructed residential house at Sirsa (Haryana) during the check period from the money received from undisclosed sources. It is also revealed that Chautala was directly involved in acquisition and projecting various tainted properties as his untainted properties. He had disclosed properties so acquired in the affidavit filed before returning officer in Haryana Vidhan Sabha Election 2005 and 2009 thereby projecting publicly the tainted properties as untainted.
Earlier, the ED had attached properties of the former Haryana CM to the tune of Rs 46,96,000. Further to this, his properties worth Rs 3.68 crores were also attached in April 2019.
Prosecution Complaint (chargesheet in police parlance) against Chautala was also filed before Special Court on July 17, 2018. The court took cognisance on November 27, 2018. Later a Supplementary Prosecution Complaint was also filed on April 25 this year.