ED attaches fresh assets of ex-UP minister Gayatri Prajapati's family

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has provisionally attached bank deposits worth Rs 60 lakh as part of a money laundering investigation against former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati and his family members.

An order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the credit balance belonging to Prajapati's son Anil Kumar Prajapati.

The Rs 60 lakh amount is kept in the bank account of Balaji Corporation Pvt. Ltd. This was the booking amount of a flat in a real estate project named "Vertu" in Wadala, Mumbai and was retained by the builder (Balaji Corporation, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

There was no immediate response from the ex-minister or his family.

Former minister Prajapati, according to the ED, while holding the post of mining minister of Uttar Pradesh, "misused" his official position and acquired assets "disproportionate" to his source of income in the name of his family members and other close associates and friends which was "not commensurate" to their known sources of income.

Gayatri Prajapati and his family members "laundered" the illicit funds generated during his tenure as a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government through various entities and a series of "fictitious" and "sham" transactions, the agency alleged.

He also used bank accounts of his family members to deposit the illegitimate cash, earned by him for his illegal gains, it claimed.

The ED had earlier attached assets worth more than Rs 50 crore in this case.

The money laundering case against Prajapati and his family stems from an FIR of the Uttar Pradesh vigilance department. PTI NES RHL

Source: PTI