ED attaches 4 hotels, 2 flats in DA probe against former IPS officer from Assam

Four hotels in Guwahati and two flats in Mumbai worth `53 crore were attached in connection with a disproportionate assets-linked money laundering case against a retired IPS officer from Assam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday. The action was taken against Prasanta Kumar Dutta, who retired from the Assam Police as a Deputy Inspector General in 2019, said the ED.
The assets provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) include four hotels in Guwahati and two residential flats in “Samartha Deep”, Andheri (West), Mumbai, the agency said.

The properties collectively were valued at `53.28 crore, it said. The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Assam Anti-Corruption and Vigilance Bureau, which alleged that Dutta, during his service period between 1992 and 2019, amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The agency ascertained that Dutta and his wife amassed assets worth `79 crore, against a combined disclosed income of `7.23 crore and expenditure of `9.04 crore. 
The ED alleged that Dutta laundered the money through three companies, one of them, Ishan Commercial.

The central agency claimed that during the 2022-23 financial year, the former police officer caused 3.70 lakh shares of Ishan Commercial to be transferred from the dummy and fictitious name-lending shareholders to himself, becoming the largest shareholder in the firm.

“It is to be noted that Ishan Commercial is the company which is the beneficial owner of three of the four hotels,” the ED said.