The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Uttarakhand Police will launch a probe into money-laundering charges against a firm allegedly owned by the wife of a close aide of former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, officials said, as reported by news agency PTI.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) V Murugesan said on Tuesday that a probe in connection with the case has been handed over to the EOW and that on the basis of its report, further action in the case will be taken. He said inquiry into the case was initiated on a complaint from Umesh Kumar, independent MLA from Khanpur, Haridwar.
Opposition parties, led by the Congress, alleged that the Social Mutual Benefit Company Limited in Dehradun, which is owned by wife of Rawat’s former advisor K S Panwar, got bank accounts opened fraudulently in the names of thousands of people in the period between 2017-2020, and converted black money into legal currency.
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They alleged that Panwar had quit as the firm’s director after he was appointed as the CM’s advisor, and his wife was appointed as the director of the company.
The allegations first surfaced in 2020 when state Congress chief Karan Mahara and former party MLA Qazi Nizamuddin raised the issue in the Winter Session of the Uttarakhand Assembly.
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In March 2021, Rawat had resigned as the CM, following a “collective decision” by the ruling BJP. He was sworn-in to the top post on March 18, 2017, and had only nine days left to complete four years in office, when he had to quit from the position.