BHUBANESWAR: Sex and extortion scandal accused Archana Nag allegedly made huge deposits into the account of her one time associate Shradhanjali Behera, sources in Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Wednesday.
The agency sources said it traced money running into several lakhs were deposited by Archana into the bank account of Shradhanjali. The money was deposited in Shradhanjali’s bank account between 2017 and 2022. “Considering the financial background of Shradhanjali and her family, her involvement in huge financial transactions raise suspicion,” said the ED sources.
On the day, Shradhanjali appeared before the agency for the first time and was grilled for over 12 hours. She was also believed to have been confronted about deposits she received. Details of bank accounts have also been sought by the probe agency.ED had earlier registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Archana, her husband Jagabandhu Chand, his business partner Khageswar Patra and Shradhanjali.
Apart from Shradhanjali, filmmaker Akshay Kumar Parija and businessman Khageswar were quizzed during the day. While Akshay was questioned for the second consecutive day, Khageswar was grilled during his three-day remand which will end on Thursday. Meanwhile, Akshay has maintained that he is a victim of the case as Archana and Shradhanjali were demanding extortion money from him.
In a related incident, Cyber crime police station in Visakhapatnam registered a case against a vernacular digital channel for allegedly running defamatory news against a senior railway official.A complaint against the digital news channel was lodged by the railway official. The channel had telecast a news and had accused the official of having links with Archana. The cyber crime police station officers in the neighbouring state have served a notice to the concerned official of the vernacular digital news channel to appear before them on Friday.