Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets belonging to the accused in the EPFO pension fund diversion case by invoking the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
According to officials, the ED officials issued orders to attach Rs 1.13 crore belonging to Kondapalli Satyanarayana Rao, a retired section supervisor in the Kadapa Sub-Regional Office of the Employment Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and his family members, under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the fraudulent diversion of Rs 1.64 crore, belonging to the pensioners into his personal bank accounts.
The ED officials initiated money laundering investigations on the basis of cases registered by CBI against Satyanarayana Rao and his family members. The attached assets include a residential flat worth Rs 98.68 lakh and bank balances of Rs 12.64 lakh.
The ED investigation revealed that the accused had tampered with Bank Reconciliation Statement’s (BRS) data by inserting fraudulent bank account numbers and fictitious names against those who received no pension for over three years due to non-submission of life certificate and those who had pension-cum-arrears and other benefits due to them.
According to the ED officials, the BRS data was downloaded through system protocol available in the electronic data processing reports and copied into a CD and handed over to the banks without any hard copy of the summary report showing the number of pensioners and amount of pension to be disbursed, making it vulnerable to manipulation.
They further claimed that the data was uploaded by bankers for payment without any cross-verification, leading to Rs 1.64 crore going into the accounts of the accused and his close relatives between 2011 and 2014.
