The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested from Lucknow, a 2008-batch IRS officer working as an additional commissioner of Customs and GST, in connection with a money laundering investigation against him linked to alleged possession of disproportionate assets worth crores, the agency said. In connection with the continuing investigation being carried out in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the accused Sachin Balasaheb Sawant was detained on June 27. Based on a FIR that the Central Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Mumbai, had filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, ED had opened an investigation.
It is alleged that Sachin Balasaheb Sawant accumulated assets during the cheque period that were out of proportion to his known and legitimate sources of income. It was discovered during the PMLA inquiry that financial deposits totaling about Rs 1.25 crore were made from mysterious sources in the personal bank accounts of Sawant’s family members as well as in the bank account of a fictitious firm whose directors included his father and brother-in-law. “It has been found that immovable property was purchased in the name of said dummy company. The source for the purchase of the said property was shown as personal loans and other bank loans whose repayments were also made in cash,” the agency said in a statement.
Although, the flat is in the name of a dummy company Sachin Sawant was occupying the said flat as its real owner. Sawant was taken into custody by the ED on June 27 in order to identify the criminal profits.
He was also presented before the Mumbai Special PMLA Court, where the court gave the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of Sawant until July 5.
There is now an ongoing investigation.