Hyderabad: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint in a Telangana court against 10 accused in a matter related to forceful occupation and selling of land and other properties by gangster Nayeemuddin and his associates and prayed for confiscation of 91 properties, an agency statement said on Wednesday
The ED’s Hyderabad Zonal Office filed the prosecution complaint before the MSJ Court, Rangareddy district, against Pasham Srinivas, Haseena Begum, Mohammed Thahera Begum, Mohammed Saleema Begum, Mohammed Abdul Saleem, Ahela Begum, Syed Nilofar, Firdous Anjum, Mohammed Arif, and Heena Kousar under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The Central agency said in a statement on Wednesday that the court has taken cognisance of the prosecution complaint.
Notorious gangster and renegade Maoist Nayeemuddin, alias Nayeem, was killed in an encounter with police at Shadnagar town near Hyderabad on August 8, 2016.
The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by the Telangana Police against Md. Abdul Faheem, Haseena Begum, Srinivas, Md. Abdul Nasir, Thumma Srinivas, B. Shravan Kumar and Sathish Reddy for the forceful occupation and selling of land by gangster Nayeemuddin and his associates.
It also received a reference from the Income Tax Department regarding action taken under the Prohibition of Benami Property & Transaction Act, 1988, against Khaja Nayeemuddin alias Nayeem, Haseena Begum, Tahera Begum and others on the basis of information received by them from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by Telangana government to probe the immovable properties illegally acquired by Nayeemuddin and his associates.
ED investigation revealed that gangster Nayeemuddin, along with his associates and family members, was involved in the forceful registration of properties of various individuals by threatening them with their lives and the lives of their family members.
The modus operandi employed by them was to identify properties, then threaten their owners for the sale/transfer of the properties in the name of Nayeemuddin’s associates or his family members. If the owner of the property did not yield to their demands, they used to abduct them or their family members and then pressurise them to come to Sub-Registrar Offices for registration of the properties in the name of Nayeemuddin’s associates or his family members, the ED said.
The PMLA investigation revealed that a total of 91 properties were forcefully registered in the names of Nayeemuddin’s family members and associates. These properties represent Proceeds of Crime liable for attachment under the provisions of the PMLA and consequent confiscation to the Central government.
However, since all these properties were already attached by the Income Tax Department under the Prohibition of Benami Property & Transaction Act, 1988, the same were not attached by the ED during the course of the PMLA investigation.
Confiscation of the said attached properties to the Central government has, however, been prayed for in the prosecution complaint filed by the ED.
(IANS)
