ED conducts searches in ₹118-crore fraudulent contracts case in Assam
In the case being probed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the agency has seized several documents and also attached properties valued about ₹34.03 crore in the form of bank balances and fixed deposits
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| Photo Credit: PTI
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted searches in connection with the alleged fraudulent award of contracts worth about ₹118 crore from 2013 to 2016 by misappropriation of funds collected as cess for the welfare of construction workers in Assam.
In the case being probed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the agency has seized several documents and also attached properties valued about ₹34.03 crore in the form of bank balances and fixed deposits.
The ED investigation is based on a First Information Report registered by the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell police station in Assam, and chargesheets filed by the police under various provisions of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Among the accused persons in the case were Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official Chohan Doley, as the then Labour Commissioner cum Member Secretary of the Assam Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (ABOCWWB); Priyanshu Boiragi, proprietor of Purbashree Printing House; Gautam Baruwa, the then ABOCWWB Chairperson; and Nagendra Nath Choudhury, the then Administrative Officer of the Board. It was alleged that the beneficiaries managed to get unreasonably high-value printing contracts from the ABOCWWB with the help of the manipulated fraudulent tendering process.
According to the ED, its investigation revealed that accused Priyanshu Boiragi had invested the proceeds of crime of about ₹118 crore, generated out of government funds, in fixed deposits in his name, and routed the balance amount to various bank accounts connected to him and various shell entities, thus creating a maze of transactions to avoid detection.
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Assam
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fraud