Kin assets over crore, Money Laundering case against two top Maoists

We want to compare the video of the footage and the actual spots where these leaders allegedly met Samuel,”said an official.

THE ENFORCEMENT Directorate, Patna, has registered cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, against two top Maoists active in Bihar and parts of Jharkhand. The cases are based on a detailed property dossier of their family members, collated by Bihar Police.

The police report says that both Maoist leaders and their family members own property and valuables worth more than Rs 1.2 crore each, besides owning land; one of them has his children admitted in reputed engineering college and schools, and the other’s niece reportedly got admission in a medical college after paying Rs 22 lakh.

The left-wing extremists — CPI (Maoist)’s Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee members Sandeep Yadav, said to be in charge of Madhya zone, and Magadh zone head Pradyuman Sharma — are reportedly in Budha Pahad area, near Latehar, to meet CPI (Maoists) central committee members Devkumar Singh (alias Arvindji) and Oggee Buhari (alias Sudhakar). According to the police, Sandeep is wanted in 88 cases in Gaya and Aurangabad in Bihar and Chatra and Palamu in Jharkhand, including killing of 10 CRPF personnel in July 2016. Pradyuman is wanted in more than two dozen cases in Gaya and Jehanabad, the police said.

Asked whether family members who have amassed allegedly “ill-gotten” assets will be made part of the PMLA case by the ED, Inspector General of Police (Operations) Kundan Krishnan said, “We have submitted complete dossiers of the two top Maoists…. All adult (family) members could be booked.”

According to police findings, Sandeep and his family have accumulated assets worth Rs 1.52 crore, and Pradyuman and his family members have property worth more than Rs 1.28 crore. Both reportedly own land, whose value has not been assessed.

The police report says one of Sandeep’s son studies in a reputed Jharkhand engineering college, another in a well-known Ranchi school, a daughter is admitted in a reputed Gaya school, and a second daughter is married to a government school teacher in Delhi. “It is surprising how Pradyuman’s family paid Rs 22 lakh for admission of his niece in a Chennai medical college. There has been transactions (payment of the fee) from three sources,” I-G Krishnan said.

Krishnan said, “Sandeep’s wife Rajwanti Devi, who is enrolled as a contract teacher at a Banke Bazar (Gaya) primary school, has withdrawn salary of Rs 6,75,424 over the years but she does not go to the school. Such is Sandeep’s terror that no one has lodged a complaint on it so far. Rajwanti’s bank balance is Rs 7,49,546, which is disproportionate to her known sources of income.”

The police report also says Rajwanti owns a 66-decimal plot in Gaya, valued at approximately Rs 50 lakh, and a flat in Ranchi worth Rs 30 lakh.

Pradyuman and his family members — wife Shanti Devi, brother Pramod, who comes from Hulasganj in Bihar’s Jehanabad district — reportedly own 38 small- and medium-sized plots. Most of it is agriculture land, and said to be worth Rs 50 lakh in all.