By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: It seems, Enforcement Directorate, may likely laid his trap on bigwigs after it brought as many as several people under its scanner. The ED on Sunday questioned the father of lady blackmailer Archana Nag in a bid to extract information regarding the properties.
According to sources, a five-member team of the national agency quizzed Archana’s father at the regional headquarters here. The investigation is mostly focused on how she amassed wealth worth crores in a span of five years.
The ED has also engaged cyber experts to examine the mobile phones of Khageswar Patra, the financial partner of Nag and her husband Jagabandhu Chand. Sources said, Khageswar had deleted some videos and other documents from the mobile phone days before his arrest. He has been questioned by the agency in this connection, sources added.
ED arrested Khageswar following raids at his house and showroom. Khageswar was running a used car dealership business between 2010 and 2019. After coming in contact with Archana, he expanded his business empire by building a used car showroom in Hansapal area on outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
The ED had earlier registered money laundering case against Archana, her husband Jagabandhu Chand and their two associates– Khageswar and Shradhanjali Behera.
The ED had on Thursday raided at 6 locations in 5 places including Bhubaneswar, Cuttcak, Banki, Balasore and Kalahandi in connection with money laundering allegation against Archana Nag Chand, Hubby Jagabandhu Chand, who were accused of extorting lakhs of rupees from politicians, businessmen and influential persons by blackmailing them with videos of intimate moments between her and them.
Those having links with Archana and her husband Jagabandhu would be served notice by ED. Bank statements of all accused will also be verified by the Central agency under the Ministry of Finance. The ED is likely to investigate the channel through which money flew and may also seek to unearth the reason behind such payments, the sources added.
Arachana and her husband , Jagabandhu were booked under Sections 341, 328, 324, 354 – C, 370, 386/387/388, 389, 419/420, 465, 506, 120 – B of IPC and Section 66 -E, 67 of IT Act and presently lodged at Jharpada Special Jail.
While Archana is accused of extorting lakhs of rupees from politicians, businessmen and influential persons by blackmailing them with videos of intimate moments between her and them, Jagabandhu had alleged involvement in the offence. They possess over Rs 40 crore assets.
The couple have reared a white horse and costly dogs in her alishan bungalow at Satya Vihar in the capital city here. Archana is also a dog lover. She has kept dogs of high breeds. She was spending lakhs of rupees for feeding the horse and the dogs. The Alishan Bungalow of Archana has beds, sofa sets and other furniture worth lakhs of rupees. Besides, she also owns costly cars like BMW, Suzuki Swift and Mahindra Thar.
