Lucknow: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday carried out searches on two locations of former cabinet Gayatri Prajapati in Mumbai. ED teams from Lucknow conducted searches on six flats purchased in the name of the family members of the former minister. These plots will be confiscated soon.
According to ED sources, the six flats about which ED has received information are in the name of Gayatri Prajapati’s son and daughter-in-law.
ED is conducting searches in various cities to find out about other benami properties of Gayatri Prajapati. The searches were carried out in Borivali and Malad on Monday evening.
Earlier, ED had seized properties worth Rs 36.94 crore of the former minister and his family in the disproportionate assets case. The market value of these seized properties was estimated at Rs 55 crore. The assets of Gayatri and his family that have been confiscated included 57 bank accounts.
ED took this action against Gayatri Prajapati in the year 2021. Besides, a charge sheet was also filed against him in the special court of ED in the money laundering case.
In 2019, ED had also lodged a PMLA case against Gayatri Prajapati and five IAS officials for mining scam, while it is also probing a case under disproportionate assets case of the former minister. CBI had also lodged a case in July 2019 in connection with a mining scam in the case.
Prajapati is in jail and convicted in a gangrape case and while cases related to accruing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income are under various stages of trial.
