Money laundering case: ED attaches assets worth Rs 1.05 Cr of Bedabyas Barik and Sarmila Panda

Bhubaneswar:  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs. 1.05 Crore belonging to the accused namely Bedabyas Barik and his wife Sarmila Panda under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 in a case involving cheating and fraud.

ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of FIR registered by ACB, CBI, Bhubaneswar under various sections of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 13(2) r/w 13(1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The case was registered against Bedabyas Barik, the erstwhile head cashier at Bank of Maharashtra, Cuttack, who allegedly defrauded Sukanti Barick w/o Bijaya Ketan Barick, a Delhi based person to the tune of Rs 4.78 Crore on the pretext of investing her money in various investment schemes of Bank of Maharashtra. The attached properties include balances under eight bank accounts and four land parcels and one flat at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Investigation under PMLA revealed that Bedabyas Barik during the years 2008- 2012, by abusing his official position, cheated Sukanti Barick, the complainant to the tune of approximately Rs 4.78 Crore (including interest) by resorting to forgery/criminal breach of trust in the matter related to investments in the schemes of Recurring Deposit (RD) and Fixed Deposits (FD) as Barik furnished fake RD receipts / FDRs in lieu of the money received from the complainant and used the amount so received to acquire illegally various assets. Accordingly, the properties acquired by the accused using the proceeds of crime, as identified by investigation, have been attached under Section 5 (1) of PMLA, 2002.

Further investigation is under progress.