The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached assets worth Rs 120 crore belonging to NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam in connection with a money laundering case that the agency had registered against him last year. Kadam is currently lodged in Arthur Road jail in connection with the Rs 550-crore Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe Development Corporation (LASDC) scam.
ED officials said a flat in Borivali in the names of Kadam and his wife, agricultural land in Aurangabad in the name of a co-operative society of which Kadam was the chairman, bank accounts with a total balance of Rs 76.67 lakh, equity shares and land on Peddar Road owned by Kadam’s company. “The current market value of the attached properties is more than Rs 120 crore. Further investigations are underway,” an official said.
On July 18 last year, an FIR was registered against Kadam for allegedly embezzling Rs 312.26 crore from the funds of the LASDC during his tenure as the president of the corporation from 2012 to 2014. The state CID arrested Kadam in August 2015, and the ED too launched a separate probe into the money laundering aspect of the alleged crime, registering a offence against Kadam under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in September 2015. Kadam is currently in judicial custody.
An ED officer said the investigation has revealed that Kadam and other accused fraudulently misappropriated funds from the LASDC meant for the development of the Matang community. They then laundered these proceeds of crime through fictitious entities created by them for this specific purpose, and further integrated the same into movable as well as immovable properties, he added.
The development comes a day after the matter was taken up in the Legislative Assembly. On Wednesday, the ruling BJP had accused the NCP for using the money obtained through the scam for funding its general election campaign. The allegation by Minister for Social Justice Dilip Kamble had led to an uproar by the NCP, leading to the House being adjourned for ten minutes.
The current market value of the attached properties is more than Rs 120 crore
