Gwalior, Jan 17 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted a raid at the premises of K.K. Arora, a former Registrar (Properties) in the Madhya Pradesh government, in the Murar locality of Gwalior.
According to sources, ED officials accompanied by a team of Central forces arrived at Arora's residence in CP Colony in Murar and began searching.
Arora, who retired as senior Registrar (Properties) in the state government, is said to be one of the partners in Vinay Haswani's companies. Hasnani is associated with ex-RTO constable Saurabh Sharma.
Arora is also considered close to Saurabh Sharma, who has allegedly amassed huge wealth -- gold, cash and properties.
Besides the Income Tax department and state Lokayukta police have also tightened noose on him. Last month, the Income tax department and Lokayukta impounded an abandoned vehicle with 52 kg of gold and more than Rs 10 crore cash. The abandoned SUV belongs to Sharma's aide Vinay Haswani.
Sources said that Arora along with his wife had left for Bengaluru a few days ago and were not at home when the ED's raid was underway.
Further details are awaited regarding the raid at Arora's residence.
Notably, the ED, Income Tax department and the Special Establishment Police (SEP) of state Lokayukta carried out separate searches at several places connected with Sharma and his associates, including Bhopal and Gwalior.
The first recovery took place during a Lokayukta raid last week, where anti-corruption officials discovered that Sharma was in possession of movable assets worth Rs 7.98 crore, including Rs 2.87 crore in cash and 235 kilograms of silver.
Following the Lokayukta FIR, the ED launched a money laundering investigation against Sharma, and raids were held in Bhopal, Gwalior, and Jabalpur in December last year. Further investigations revealed that Sharma was not working alone but was part of one of the buffers of big and influential people in the state.
Sharma has been absconding since the first Lokayukta raid and the police continue to be on his lookout.