Bhubaneswar/New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against Raja Chakra, a youth leader of the Biju Janta Dal (BJD) in Odisha, to probe charges of financial irregularities worth crores of rupees in transport, mining and liquor businesses linked to him and his associates in the state, the agency said Friday.
It also conducted searches in this case at nine locations in Keonjhar and Bhubaneswar on Thursday. The premises covered included the home and offices of Soumya Shankar Chakra alias Raja Chakra and his linked entities, the agency said in a statement.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Odisha Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) which is probing him on the charges of financial irregularities in transportation, mining and liquor businesses spread across the state.
Chakra, a powerful youth leader of the BJD, is currently lodged in jail under judicial custody in connection with the EOW case, official sources said.
The ED filed the case, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), with its Delhi-based headquarters investigation unit and not at its zonal unit in Bhubaneswar given the "sensitivity and likelihood of involvement of certain influential persons including politically exposed persons of Odisha" in this case, the sources said.
The probe pertains to "large-scale" embezzlement of public funds from Gandhamardan Loading Agency and Transporting Cooperative Society Ltd., Keonjhar.
"Though the Society was set up to support its members through transportation of iron ore from OMC (Odisha mining corporation) mines, it was allegedly turned into a front for siphoning funds by Chakra in collusion with the office bearers of the society," the ED said.
The society, according to the sources, was made a "front" by Chakra for "siphoning" funds.
The ED found that funds worth Rs 40 crore of the society were "misappropriated" by Chakra through "forged" records, "manipulated" work orders, and "inflated or fake" expenses under heads such as periphery development, fuel and transport.
Chakra was not an office bearer of the society, but the ED probe found that he exercised "influence" and "controlled" the day-to-day decisions of the society.
The agency found that more than 70 vehicles, mostly ending with registration number '21', were being used for illegal mining and transportation owned by Chakra and his "benami" entities.
The agency, according to the sources, is also probing "diversion" of illicit funds into the liquor business of Chakra, licensed in the name of his wife Rupali Pattanaik.
The ED said it found during searches that while the licence to run the liquor shop was in the name of Rupali Pattanaik, payments for the sale of liquor were received in accounts of other family members.
"Multiple bank accounts belonging to Chakra have been frozen. Various incriminating documents and digital devices have been seized during search which are being examined," it said.