Patna: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached five immovable properties valued at Rs 2.01 crore in connection with its investigation into the Bihar Constable Recruitment 2023 exam paper leak, an ED official said in a statement on Friday. The ED's Patna Zonal Office attached the properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
Source: IANS via HiIndia (ED statement)
Nation Press, reporting the same ED action on Friday, also said five properties worth Rs 2.01 crore had been attached in the Bihar Constable 2023 paper-leak case. The properties are held in the name of NC Print Pvt Ltd, another company the ED says is controlled and beneficially owned by Kaushik Kumar Kar, and were attached as value equivalent to the proceeds of crime identified so far because, according to the agency, the crime proceeds themselves could not be traced further.
Source: Nation Press
How the alleged printing-contract conspiracy worked
The ED investigation began from an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU), Patna, under IPC sections 120B, 420, 467 and 468 and Section 66 of the IT Act, against Telegram URLs, mobile numbers and bank accounts involved in leaking the constable recruitment question paper. According to the EOU charge sheet dated August 22, 2024, cited by the ED, Kaushik Kumar Kar, owner of Blessings Secured Press Pvt Ltd, allegedly orchestrated a conspiracy to secure the question-paper printing contract through his proxy company Caltex Multiventures Pvt Ltd, which the ED said lacked prior printing experience and its own printing press.
The agency alleged that Kar, the beneficial owner of the earlier-blacklisted Blessings Secured Press, incorporated Caltex Multiventures by placing associates as dummy directors to circumvent the restrictions arising from Blessings' involvement in previous paper-leak cases. Caltex allegedly secured the contract from the Central Selection Board of Constable, Bihar, through cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy, and outsourced the printing to Blessings Secured Press in violation of the contract. The question papers were transported from Kolkata to Patna and were allegedly leaked en route to the exam centres in connivance with other accused persons.
Rs 5.9 crore advance, Rs 2.01 crore allegedly diverted
Caltex Multiventures received an advance of Rs 5.9 crore and remitted only part of it to Blessings Secured Press, the ED said, alleging that Rs 2.01 crore was diverted through various shell entities and finally dissipated. The agency said its investigation found the proceeds of crime were layered and concealed through a complex network of Kolkata-based shell companies and entities lacking genuine business operations.
The 2023 constable recruitment was aimed at filling 21,391 vacancies and drew over 18 lakh aspirants to an examination held on October 1, 2023, at 529 centres across 37 districts; the exam was cancelled on October 3, 2023, after the leak allegations, according to earlier PTI reporting on the ED's multi-state searches in the case. The allegations against Kar and the companies are the agency's claims in an ongoing investigation and have not been proved in court.