The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out searches in 10 States against senior government officials who face corruption charges in cases registered by various enforcement agencies, including one related to the alleged ‘memorial’ scam during the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh.
The development comes days after the agency cracked down on shell companies across 16 States as part of the Central government’s drive against black money.
On Thursday, the searches were conducted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Goa, among other States. The Directorate has already registered money laundering cases against the accused persons.
One case is linked to some Uttar Pradesh government officials in the alleged ‘memorial’ scam, which caused a loss of ₹ 1,400 crore to the exchequer.
“Searches have also been conducted against the then Director General (Health), project engineers and the then Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam director in the National Rural Health Scheme case, in which government servants and ministers had allegedly misappropriated funds. The agency has so far attached properties worth over ₹ 250 crore in the case,” said an official.
Another case is against an IAS officer in West Bengal, who had allegedly released funds to the tune of ₹ 60 crore by manipulating tender documents in collusion with some engineers.
In Tamil Nadu, searches were carried out against bank officials who had allegedly sanctioned loans for extended credit facilities to private parties without the necessary papers or collaterals.
