ED attaches assets of former Magadh University VC in money laundering case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties of a former vice-chancellor of Magadh University in Bihar as part of its money laundering investigation against him linked to alleged possession of disproportionate assets. The action was taken against Dr Rajendra Prasad, the former vice-chancellor of the Bodh Gaya-based university.

Immovable properties worth Rs 64.53 lakh are registered in the names of family members and family-owned trust of Dr Rajendra Prasad and are located in Dhanghata, Sant Kabir Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh, the central agency said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR by the special vigilance unit of Bihar, alleging that while working as the vice-chancellor of Magadh University, Prasad entered into a criminal conspiracy with others and "cheated" the state government in the process of printing confidential documents like OMR sheets and others.

The SVU Patna, the ED said, had searched Prasad's premises and seized Rs 1.84 crore cash and froze Rs 90.79 lakh funds kept in his bank accounts, it said. ED probe found that from September 2019 to November 2021, Dr Rajendra Prasad "used proceeds of crime to acquire five properties in cash in the name of his son Dr Ashok Kumar and R P College represented by his brother Awadhesh Prasad".

The properties which were acquired in the name of R P College have been transferred to the family-owned Pyari Devi Memorial Welfare Trust on lease. Prasad also deposited the proceeds of the crime generated in cash in the bank account of the Trust to portray it as income of the said trust, the ED claimed.

A well-planned conspiracy was hatched by Prasad involving his family members to project the properties acquired with proceeds of crime as untainted properties by using the family-owned Trust as a conduit, the federal probe agency alleged.