The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached movable and immovable assets valued at Rs. 3.46 crore in the form of a Land Bank balance belonging to Lakshman Hembram, a Sub-Postmaster, Postal Department, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED said on Saturday.
The ED is probing the fraud on the basis of an FIR registered by the Moyna Police Station, Purba Medinipur, Tamluk, for the alleged commission of offenses under various sections of IPC, 1860, against Lakshman Hembram.
ED's investigation revealed that Lakshman Hembram used to effect premature or final closure of term deposit accounts, apparently by forging the signatures of the account holders, and transferred the premature amount or maturity proceeds of those TD accounts to the savings accounts of the same account holders without knowledge of those account holders.
"Thereafter, he used to siphon off the said amount from their SB accounts by way of fraudulent withdrawals, again apparently by forging the signature(s) of the account holders. The instances of withdrawals of amounts exclusively from Savings Bank Accounts of the depositors and term deposits were observed without knowledge of the account holders, as none of these withdrawals were found in the relevant passbooks of the depositors," the ED said in a statement.
These withdrawal amounts to the tune of Rs 4.12 crore were used for the purchase of movable or immovable assets and for personal use and are proceeds of crime as per the provisions of the PMLA, 2002.
An earlier search operation was conducted by the ED at the residential places of Lakshman Hembram, and incriminating documents related to his involvement in the fraud, including cash amounting to Rs 5.25 lakh and a bank balance of Rs 5.97 lakh, were found and seized or frozen.(UNI)
