The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday that it had provisionally attached former Congress minister B Nagendra’s four immovable properties, including residential and commercial land and buildings, worth Rs 8.07 crore, in connection with an alleged scam in Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Limited (KMVSTDCL).
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The Enforcement Directorate’s Bengaluru zone attached Rs 4.94 crore’s worth of assets of the other accused in the money laundering case in August. The central agency said that although it tried to trace all the proceeds of crime allegedly generated by Nagendra, it appeared that he had either exhausted or concealed them. The agency said it was thus constrained to attach assets worth the equivalent value of the alleged proceeds of crime, adding that further proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act might otherwise be frustrated.
The Enforcement Directorate initiated an investigation based on cases registered by the Karnataka Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation after an officer of KMVSTDCL died by suicide on May 26, 2024, alleging pressure from a minister to divert funds of the corporation.
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The Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet in the case named Nagendra as the mastermind behind the scam. It was alleged that the accused people illegally transferred the money from the account of KMVSTDCL and misappropriated the funds to defraud the corporation of public money worth Rs 89.63 crore by forging valuable securities and documents.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, its investigation revealed that money from KMVSTDCL’s account was transferred to a fraudulently opened account at the MG Road branch of Union Bank of India in collusion with officers of the bank. Subsequently, funds from other accounts and the treasury were allegedly pooled into this account.
From the pooled funds, Rs 89.63 crore was allegedly diverted from this fraudulently opened account of KMVSTDCL to 18 fake bank accounts opened with First Finance Credit Cooperative Bank Limited in Hyderabad, in connivance with the bank’s chairman. The diverted funds were then allegedly layered through fictitious and shell accounts, with cash and bullion distributed among the accused, the agency added.