Daijiworld Media Network - Kolkata

Kolkata, Dec 2: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth over Rs 203 crore in two separate money-laundering investigations spanning West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, the agency said on Tuesday.

In the first case, the ED froze assets valued at Rs 199.67 crore belonging to Prakash Vanijya Pvt Ltd and its promoter-director Manoj Kumar Jain, who allegedly defrauded the Central Bank of India of Rs 234.57 crore. According to the agency, the company secured credit facilities using inflated financials and forged documents, then diverted funds illegally. The attached properties — seized through four provisional orders now confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority — include both movable and immovable assets in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

In a second action announced the same day, the ED issued a provisional attachment order covering assets worth Rs 3.98 crore, including a residential flat, as part of a probe into a sophisticated trade-based money laundering (TBML) network linked to Yecnail Enterprises Pvt Ltd and several connected entities.

Investigators say the syndicate operated a web of shell importing firms that declared low-value stones as high-value precious stones, using over-invoiced import papers and fabricated valuation reports produced with the help of government-approved valuers and customs house agents. The funds were layered through multiple dummy companies before being remitted overseas under the guise of legitimate import payments, enabling the illegal transfer of hundreds of crores out of India.

The ED has intensified its operations in West Bengal in recent months, carrying out raids tied to several high-profile cases, including the municipal jobs-for-cash scam, coal smuggling, and sand smuggling.