ED books IFS officer, husband, in investment fraud-linked money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said that a chargesheet has been filed against Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Neeharika Singh, her husband, and his companies in a money laundering case linked with an alleged investment fraud, PTI reported.

The agency said that the prosecution complaint, which was filed on September 2, was taken cognizance of by a Lucknow-based special court on Monday, November 25.

The parties named accused in the chargesheet are the IFS officer, her husband Ajit Kumar Gupta and his companies, Anee Bullion and Industries Pvt. Ltd., Anee Commodity Brokers Pvt. Ltd., and Anee Securities Pvt. Ltd.

ALSO READ | Thane businessman duped of ₹5 Cr in online share investment scam

A case under several relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was filed.

Further, the accused IFS officer was interrogated by the anti-corruption agency. Singh was reportedly last posted in the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi.

What is the case

The probe into the money laundering case began after the ED took note of the 33 First Information Reports (FIRs) that were registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police against Gupta and several other persons and companies for "cheating and fraud" of more than ₹110 crore.

The accused persons "lured" several people to invest in fake schemes, intended to loot them. These frauds took place between February 2020 and October 2020, the federal agency said.

ALSO READ | Noida: Man arrested for investment fraud, ₹24 lakh recovered

Additionally, police have reportedly filed 25 chargesheets in at least 12 such related cases.

Gupta allegedly conspired with his other associates and collected massive amounts of money from naive investors by pulling them into "fraudulent" schemes, such as daily deposit schemes, monthly recurring deposit schemes, and fixed schemes.

These fake schemes were floated through Gupta's company, Anee Bullion Trader. The gullible victims of these scams were promised an "exorbitant" rate of returns at 40 per cent per annum, which the alleged fraudsters did not return, ED said.

Later, Singh's husband allegedly began collecting money from investors with the help of Eye Vision Credit Co-operative Society Ltd's account. The ED's probe reportedly found that Gupta took in this money through his associates, who were the office bearers of the co-operative society, in the name of new return-linked investment schemes.

ALSO READ | Bengaluru man arrested for running inter-state cyber scam racket, defrauding several of ₹2.3 crore: Report

These collected investments were "never returned", resulting in innocent people being defrauded of ₹60 crore, the agency alleged.

"The proceeds of crime generated by Ajit Gupta by luring the gullible investors was further layered through various companies of Anee Group and was used for purchase of various immovable properties like house, agriculture land etc. for himself and in the name of his IFS wife Neeharika Singh and others," ED's statement read.

Earlier, the anti-corruption agency attached assets worth over ₹9 crore in this case.

(with inputs from PTI)