Congress goes to ED to probe money laundering in TSPSC paper leak

The memorandum said if ED does not intervene, the accused may deal with the ill-gotten funds.

Telangana Congress president, A. Revanth Reddy approached the Enforcement Directorate seeking its intervention in the ongoing Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) paper leak as the case involved the exchange of money and suspected money laundering as there were some NRIs too who benefitted from the paper leak.

A team led by Mr. Reddy visited the ED office in Hyderabad and submitted a memorandum to the Joint Director stating that only a central agency like the ED, which is empowered with the powers and resources to investigate money laundering, would be able to do a thorough investigation to unearth the receipt of illegal gratification.

The memorandum said if ED does not intervene, the accused may deal with the ill-gotten funds. Further, media reports say the question paper has been leaked to at least ten people including NRIs on payment of illegal gratification of up to ₹15 lakhs per person, running into crores. Since the investigation would involve tracing the flow of funds across borders only the ED can do justice.

The memorandum also said that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the State government booked cases under various sections including 420, 120(B) IPC and Sections 66 (B) (C), 70 of the Information Technology Act, 2008. “It is pertinent to note that Section 420 IPC and 120B are scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and as such ED would be empowered to initiate an investigation into the aspect of money laundering in the TSPSC paper leakage scam.” the memorandum said.

The Congress chief also alleged that the SIT was working as per the directions of IT Minister, K.T. Rama Rao as it was evident from the press conference held by him on March 18 where he had claimed that only two people were involved in the paper leak. Further, the Minister in a public meeting on March 27 referred to sensitive information about the applicants who appeared for the TSPSC exams. This proves that he was privy to the details of the investigation, which ought to have been exclusively in the knowledge of SIT. Under these circumstances, the probe by ED will reveal many other facets of the case and it should immediately take over the case, the Congress team argued.