{"id":24739,"date":"2026-08-01T15:42:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/?p=24739"},"modified":"2026-08-02T03:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:38:35","slug":"government-impersonation-scam-ed-freezes-rs-1-12-crore-in-bank-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/2026\/08\/01\/government-impersonation-scam-ed-freezes-rs-1-12-crore-in-bank-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Impersonation Scam: ED Freezes Rs. 1.12 Crore in Bank Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Agartala, Aug. 1:<\/strong> The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Agartala Sub-Zonal Office, has provisionally attached bank balances worth approximately \u20b91.12 crore<\/strong> under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002<\/strong>, in connection with an alleged multi-state fraud involving impersonation of Government officials and cheating businessmen and investors through entities resembling Government organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the ED, the attachment was carried out through a Provisional Attachment Order issued on July 31, 2026<\/strong>. The attached assets comprise bank balances held in the names of shell entities allegedly controlled by Utpal Kumar Chowdhury<\/strong>, suspended Tripura cadre IAS officer Abhishek Chandra<\/strong>, and a private housing company. The agency has identified these funds as proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money laundering investigation was initiated on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by police in West Bengal and Tripura<\/strong> against Utpal Kumar Chowdhury and his associates. The FIRs involve allegations of cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and impersonation, all of which are scheduled offences under the PMLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ED alleged that Utpal Kumar Chowdhury posed as a senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs<\/strong> using forged identity cards. Investigators also found that he allegedly floated firms with names deceptively similar to Government departments and public sector undertakings, including “Directorate of Higher Education, Tripura”<\/strong> and “M\/s Bridge & Roof Co.”<\/strong>, besides fraudulently taking control of the registered trust Chaltakhali Swamiji Seva Sangha<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the agency, these entities were used to deceive businessmen and investors by offering fake Government tenders, mid-day meal supply contracts and profitable rubber business ventures. Victims were allegedly induced to transfer crores of rupees into bank accounts operated by the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ED further stated that the proceeds of crime were routed through a network of shell companies before being withdrawn in cash or diverted into immovable properties, vehicles and other assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation also alleges that suspended IAS officer Abhishek Chandra<\/strong> received proceeds of crime directly through his personal bank accounts and indirectly through payments made to a private housing company for the booking of a flat in his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this latest attachment, the total value of assets provisionally attached in the case has risen to approximately \u20b91.63 crore<\/strong> across two Provisional Attachment Orders. The Enforcement Directorate said that further investigation is in progress<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agartala, Aug. 1: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Agartala Sub-Zonal Office, has provisionally attached bank balances worth approximately \u20b91.12 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with an alleged multi-state fraud involving impersonation of Government officials and cheating businessmen and investors through entities resembling Government organisations. According to the ED, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":24740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[6140],"class_list":["post-24739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tripura"],"authors":[{"term_id":6140,"user_id":243,"is_guest":0,"slug":"bindusmitabhowmik","display_name":"Bindusmita Bhowmik","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-02-at-11.04.01-AM.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-02-at-11.04.01-AM.jpeg"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"Bindusmita","last_name":"Bhowmik","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24739"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24746,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739\/revisions\/24746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24739"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=24739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}