Money laundering: Charges framed against ex-ITO, wife

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1

A local court on Tuesday framed charges against former Income Tax Officer (ITO) Rakesh Jain and his wife Suneet Jain in a money laundering case. The charges were framed under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money laundering Act, 2002. Enforcement Directorate’s investigations revealed that the couple had collected about Rs 1.77 crore via unethical means.

Though the CBI had already filed chargesheet against Rakesh Jain in the Special CBI court, after looking into aspects of money laundering, the ED had also filed one. Jain was arrested red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a local businessman in Sector 20 on February 6, 2013, at his house. The trap was laid on the complaint of Ashok Arora at the ITO’s residence in Sector 22.

Ashok Arora, a resident of Sector 20, who has a real estate firm in Sector 22, was served a notice by the Income Tax Department. On approaching the Income Tax Office, Arora met Jain, who offered to sort out the matter for him for a sum of Rs 3.5 lakh. The deal was finalised for Rs 2.5 lakh. Arora then approached the CBI and a trap was laid. Arora went to Jain’s residence to pay the first instalment of Rs 50,000 and Jain was caught red-handed by the CBI.

At the time of the raid, the CBI had recovered a brick of gold weighing 1 kg, in addition to gold coins and jewellery weighing 500 gm and worth Rs 15 lakh from Jain’s locker in the Sector 17 branch of the Bank of Baroda and another locker in the Sector 22 branch of the State Bank of Patiala. In addition, two gold bricks, weighing 1 kg each worth Rs 60 lakh, were recovered from his Sector 22 residence when the CBI arrested him on February 6, 2013. Cash to the tune of Rs 24 lakh was also recovered from his residence.