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New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) The ED, Ranchi zonal office has filed a supplementary prosecution complaint (PC) under PMLA, 2002, before the Special PMLA Court, Ranchi, against Dinesh Gop, self-styled chief of banned Naxalite outfit People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) in a terror funding case. An official gave this information on Saturday.
The complaint also names 19 other individuals and entities in the terror funding and money laundering case, where the total proceeds of crime (PoC) generated through systematic extortion and levy collection by PLFI is estimated to be around Rs 20 crore.
In August, the ED had arrested Dinesh Gope, the jailed chief of banned Maoist outfit People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) in a money laundering case.
The ED filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against Gope under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Gop, a dreaded Maoist leader, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Nepal on May 21, 2023 in a terror funding case. Before his arrest, the Jharkhand government had announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh, while the NIA had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for information leading to his arrest. Till August he is currently lodged in Palamu Central Jail.
According to ED officials, Gope was interrogated for two days in July 2023, during which he confessed to extortion and siphoning off money through shell companies run by his close associates and family members.
The investigation revealed that Gope misappropriated several crores of rupees through entities like Bhavya Injicon Pvt Ltd, Shiv Shakti Minerals Pvt Ltd, Shakti Samriddhi Infra Pvt Ltd and Palak Enterprises, which were being operated by his wives Shakuntala Devi and Geeta, along with associate Sumant Kumar.
The investigation further found that the NIA had seized Rs 19.93 lakh from the bank accounts of their wives and detected transactions of more than Rs 2.5 crore in more than two dozen accounts. Besides this, a flat in Ranchi and a residence in Edalhatu, worth around Rs 1 crore, were attached.
The money-laundering case is linked to a 2018 FIR lodged at Ranchi’s Bedo police station, where investigators learned that after the November 2016 demonetisation, Gope’s associate was caught trying to deposit demonetised notes worth Rs 25.38 lakh.
The ED is now expanding its investigation to unearth Gop’s levy-extortion network, financial means and investment channels in Jharkhand and neighboring states.
–IANS
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