NEW DELHI: A Rs 5.25-crore flat of an alleged cattle smuggler in Delhi's Chittranjan Park and mutual funds of Rs 53 lakh of a BSF commandant's wife have been attached under the anti-money laundering law in a cattle smuggling probe, the ED said on Friday.
The case pertains to the illegal trade that was rampant along the India-Bangladesh international border in West Bengal.
The agency issued two separate provisional attachment orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the prime accused in the case, Md Enamul Haque, and Tanya Sanyal, the wife of Border Security Force commanding officer Satish Kumar.
"Attached assets include land and mutual funds belonging to Tanya Sanyal, and a flat situated in Chittranjan Park, New Delhi having value of Rs 5.25 crore belonging to Haque through his company Haque Industries Pvt Limited."
"This flat was purchased by Haque from the proceeds of cattle smuggling and this (money) was layered through Dubai and brought back to India in the form of remittances," the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.
BSF commandant Satish Kumar, who was posted in Murshidabad and Malda regions of West Bengal, was earlier arrested by the CBI in this cross-border cattle smuggling case.
The ED filed a criminal case against the accused taking cognisance of this CBI complaint.
Haque was also arrested by the CBI in November 2020 as part of its independent probe into the same case.
He later got bail in the CBI case from the Supreme Court.
However, he was arrested by the ED on February 18 and is currently in judicial custody.
The ED has earlier claimed that "bribe to the tune of Rs 12.8 crore was deposited by Manoj Sana, associate of Enamul Haque, in the bank accounts of Tanya Sanyal and Badal Krishna Sanyal (father of Tanya Sanyal)."
The CBI had earlier filed a charge sheet in a special court in West Bengal's Asansol where it alleged that Haque was the mastermind of the illegal cattle trade and was assisted by two other accused -- TMC youth wing leader Vinay Mishra and his arrested brother Vikas Mishra -- in alleged connivance with the BSF commandant.
Some others were also named in the CBI charge sheet in connection with the cattle smuggling case.
The total attachment in this case now stands at Rs 11.67 crore and "proceeds of crime" to the tune of Rs 418 crore have been identified till now, the ED said.