• Source:JND
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A chargesheet against Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Neeharika Singh, her husband, and his businesses has been filed in a money laundering case connected to an alleged investment fraud, the Enforcement Directorate announced on Wednesday, according to PTI.

According to the agency, a special court in Lucknow took cognizance of the prosecution complaint on Monday, November 25, after it was submitted on September 2.

The IFS officer, her husband Ajit Kumar Gupta, and his businesses, Anee Bullion and Industries Pvt Ltd, Anee Commodity Brokers Pvt Ltd, and Anee Securities Pvt Ltd, are the parties mentioned as accused in the chargesheet.

A case was filed under a number of pertinent PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) provisions.

Additionally, the anti-corruption agency questioned the accused IFS officer. Singh was apparently last employed at the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi.

The Case

The ED launched an investigation into the money laundering case after the Uttar Pradesh Police registered 33 First Information Reports (FIRs) against Gupta and other individuals and entities for "cheating and fraud" totaling over Rs 110 crore.

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The accused "lured" other people into investing in fraudulent schemes with the intention of looting them. The frauds occurred between February and October 2020, according to the federal authorities. Furthermore, police have reportedly filed 25 chargesheets in at least 12 similar cases.

Gupta allegedly collaborated with his other friends to defraud unsuspecting investors by luring them into "fraudulent" schemes such as daily deposit schemes, monthly repeating deposit schemes, and fixed-rate schemes. These fraudulent schemes were spread through Gupta's organisation, Anee Bullion Trader. The naive victims of these scams were promised "exorbitant" returns of 40 per cent per year, which the alleged fraudsters failed to provide, according to the ED.

Later, Singh's husband allegedly began collecting money from investors through the Eye Vision Credit Co-operative Society Ltd account. According to the ED's investigation, Gupta received this money through his friends, who were co-operative society office bearers, in the name of new return-linked investment schemes.