The Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached assets worth ₹25 lakh of Asha Shaji, wife of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader and former legislator K.M. Shaji, on Tuesday.
The attached assets included a residential property at Vengeri village at Kakkodi on the outskirts of Kozhikode city. The action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, a press release said here.
The case
The case was that Mr. Shaji had accepted a bribe of ₹25 lakh from a teacher on behalf of the school management in 2016. The teacher was later regularised in a school at Azhikode.
The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Kannur Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) on April 18, 2020.
The VACB had registered the case against Mr. Shaji, then MLA, under Section 7 (Offence relating to public servant being bribed) and 12(1)(d) (punishment for abetment of offences) read with 13 (2) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) Prevention of Corruption Act.
Probe report
Investigation by the ED revealed that substantial part of money was utilised for the construction of the residential building in the name of Asha Shaji in 2016. Further, investigation was on , the release said.
Previously the ED had recorded the statement of Mr. Shaji, who had represented Azhikode during the last term, as well as that of Ms. Asha two years ago. The ED had then wanted to extract details about the source of income in connection with construction of the 5,500 sq.ft house.
Besides, the Kozhikode Corporation had also submitted a report to the ED mentioning the violations in the construction of the house. The civic authorities had permitted to construct the house for a space of 3,200 sq ft. in 2013.
