New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate late on Friday night raided premises linked to controversial Income Tax Commissioner and IRS officer Neeraj Singh, in connection with a money-laundering probe against him, where he stands accused of using a Kolkata-based accountant, Govind Agarwal to launder his alleged ill-gotten wealth, officials here said on Saturday.
They said that six places were searched in connection with the case - two each in Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune, which included two of Singh's residences in Mumbai and Pune and residential premises of his relatives. The searches in Kolkata were conducted at the office premises of one Anup Killa in British India Street of Chowringhee at the addresses where some shell companies related to the case are registered.
The financial probe agency has recovered several documents related to around eight to nine properties, a number of bank account details and various investment documents.
The Millennium Post had on June 27, first reported that the ED had started a money-laundering probe against Singh and Govind Agarwal, after taking cognisance of a Kolkata Police FIR, accusing them of laundering money for several senior public officials and people with significant clout in the corridors of power.
It was also revealed at the time that Singh, who is the nephew of a Union Minister in the current government, was allegedly very close to Gautam Kundu, the chief of Rose Valley Group, which is currently being probed for a Rs 15,000 crore chit fund scam.
Singh had allegedly used Agarwal to park his tainted earnings in several land deals with the Rose Valley Group and had even travelled to Port Blair with both Kundu and his wife Shubhra Kundu for a land deal there, according to an initial statement by Agarwal.
Senior officials in the know said that Agarwal has been confronted with the air tickets and several documents, after which he confirmed that he used to pay for travel expenses for Singh and several other senior IRS officers.
In fact, a highly placed source added that Agarwal used to arrange for the entertainment of these high-level public officials and dignitaries, that included the likes of a former Central Vigilance Commissioner.
While the ED is pursuing Singh's link to the Rose Valley chit fund case, the CBI has been tightening the noose around ex-Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar's neck, whose arrest shield was just lifted.
Interestingly, details divulged by Agarwal have also pointed to the fact that a former Joint Director of CBI, who was in charge of probing the chit fund cases might have benefitted directly through the Singh-Agarwal nexus.
This despite a history of central investigators like ED's Manoj Kumar having been caught in cahoots with chiefs of chit fund companies. The CBI's seeming silence in pursuing leads related to Neeraj Singh and Manoj Kumar in the chit fund cases is raising eyebrows.
After the Millennium Post had first reported on the Singh-Agarwal nexus, the CBDT had put Singh under suspension, with the senior IRS officer publicly denying all charges against him.