ED Attaches ₹3.50 Crore Assets in Railway Bribery Case Involving Former NFR Officer
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Guwahati Zonal Office, has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth around ₹3.50 crore in a money-laundering case involving the late Ranjit Kumar Borah, former Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer (Con.) of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Maligaon, Guwahati, and others.
The attached assets include a residential flat in Patna, Bihar, valued at approximately ₹3.28 crore and held in the name of Sonal Jain, along with a Canara Bank term deposit of around ₹21.24 lakh in her name.
The ED initiated its investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch-I in New Delhi against Borah and others. The case relates to allegations of demanding and accepting illegal gratification from private contractors in exchange for extending undue favours in the award and execution of NFR contracts.
According to the ED, the CBI intercepted the delivery of alleged bribe money on December 14, 2021, following which the accused were arrested. The CBI subsequently filed a charge sheet in the case in 2022.
The ED investigation allegedly found that Borah demanded and accepted bribes from Chintan Jain and Nayan Chandra Jain, proprietors of railway contractor firm M/s Sunshine, and parked the alleged bribe money with them.
The agency said the proceeds of crime were subsequently used to purchase a flat at Platinum Towers in Gurugram, Haryana, in the name of M/s Sunshine. The property was later sold in 2024 for approximately ₹3.50 crore.
According to the ED, the sale proceeds were then layered through the bank accounts of M/s Sunshine, Chintan Jain and his wife, Sonal Jain. The funds were allegedly used to repay home loans taken for acquiring the Patna residential property and to create fixed deposits in Sonal Jain’s name with Canara Bank.
The ED said the assets attached in the present action represent the alleged reinvestment and integration of proceeds of crime generated through the bribery network.
Ranjit Kumar Borah died on September 6, 2024, while the investigation was still underway.
The ED clarified that attachment proceedings under the PMLA are proceedings in rem, meaning they are directed against the allegedly tainted property itself. Consequently, the properties have been attached even though they are currently held by other persons.
News Source : Information for this article was gathered from a variety of reliable news outlets.
