Guwahati: ED attaches assets worth Rs 3.50 crore in bribery case involving ex-NFR official

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Guwahati Zonal Office, has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth approximately Rs 3.50 crore in a money laundering case involving late Ranjit Kumar Borah, former Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer (Con.), Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Maligaon, Guwahati, and others.

The attached assets include a residential flat in Patna, Bihar, valued at approximately Rs 3.28 crore and held in the name of Sonal Jain, and a term deposit of around Rs 21.24 lakh maintained with Canara Bank in her name.

The ED initiated its investigation based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), AC-I, New Delhi, against Borah and others over allegations of demanding and accepting illegal gratification from private contractors in exchange for extending undue favours in the award and execution of NFR contracts. The CBI intercepted the delivery of alleged bribe money on December 14, 2021, arrested the accused and subsequently filed a chargesheet in 2022.

According to the ED investigation, Borah allegedly demanded and accepted bribes from Chintan Jain and Nayan Chandra Jain, proprietors of railway contractor firm M/s Sunshine, and parked the proceeds with them. The agency alleged that the proceeds were used to purchase a flat at Platinum Towers in Gurugram in the name of M/s Sunshine.

The flat was subsequently sold in 2024 for approximately Rs 3.5 crore, after which the sale proceeds were allegedly routed through the bank accounts of M/s Sunshine, Chintan Jain and his wife, Sonal Jain. The funds were ultimately used to repay home loans taken for the Patna property and create fixed deposits with Canara Bank, the ED said.

The agency said the attached properties represented the reinvestment and integration of the alleged proceeds of crime generated by Borah.

Borah died on September 6, 2024, while the investigation was underway. The ED said the attachment proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were against the properties themselves and were therefore effected in the hands of their present holder.

Further investigation is underway.

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