Mumbai, Jun 28 (PTI) A 2008-batch IRS officer, working as an additional commissioner of customs and GST, has been arrested in connection with a money laundering investigation against him linked to alleged possession of disproportionate assets, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Wednesday.
Sachin Balasaheb Sawant, who earlier worked with the ED at its Mumbai zonal office as a deputy director, was taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday after the federal agency launched raids at his premises in Mumbai and some other locations.
The officer was produced before a special PMLA court here which sent him to ED custody till July 5, the agency said in a statement.
Sawant, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the customs and indirect taxes cadre, was currently posted in the Customs and GST Directorate, Lucknow. He also worked with the ED between 2017 and 2019.
The money laundering case against the officer stems from a June, 2022 CBI FIR that was filed against him on charges of possession of disproportionate assets.
Sawant “amassed assets disproportionate to his known and legal sources of income and probe found that cash deposits of around Rs 1.25 crore were made from unexplained sources in the personal bank accounts of family members and in the bank account of dummy company where his father and brother-in-law were directors”, the ED said. It has been found that immovable property was purchased in the name of the said dummy company and the source for purchase for the said property was shown as personal loans and other bank loans whose repayments were also made in cash, the agency alleged. Although, the flat is in the name of the dummy company, Sawant was occupying this flat as its real owner, it said.
According to the CBI FIR, Sawant, during the check period from 12.01.2011 to 31.08.2020, “enriched himself illegally and amassed assets in his name and in the name of family members (wife, father and mother) and also incurred huge expenditure, which is disproportionate to the tune of 204 per cent of their known and legal source of income, amounting to Rs 2,45,78,579”. PTI NES KVK KVK
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