The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday moved before Adjudicating Authority, New Delhi to seek confirmation of attachment of movable property worth `11.92 lakh of DOMCO Pvt. Ltd and its officials in one of the coal block scam cases.
On October 23, ED had made provisional attachment of assets of DOMCO Pvt Ltd under Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002.
The amount was parked in the Axis Bank account of Ranchi based Hotel Le Lac owned by Binay Prakash who is also owner of the company.
“Under provisions of PMLA any attachment has to be confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority within 180 days of provisional attachment. In the past also ED had attached assets of the company. We are investigating involvement of the company and its officials in coal block allotment scam in the basis of FIR lodged by the CBI,” an official of ED said.
The ED initiated investigations on the basis of an FIR lodged by the CBI under section 120-B, 420 of IPC against DOMCO, its promoters/directors and other unknown persons.
They are accused of securing Lalgarh (North) coal block in West Bokaro Coalfield in Jharkhand on the basis of false and fabricated documents. The coal block was allotted to the company on 8th July, 2005.
Binay Prakash obtained pecuniary benefit of Rs. seven crores by offering to sell the shares of the company on premium after he secured allocation of the coal block for the company.
ED claimed that Binay Prakash group had invested this ill-gotten money in the name of development of a government plot in NCR through M/s Kamakhya Builders. This construction company is controlled by Binay Prakash in the capacity of managing partner.
Earlier ED had attached immovable properties held in the name of Binay Prakash’ Group amounting to a `3.96 crores and movable properties amounting to `2.92 crores. ED has already filed chargesheet against the company and its office bearers.