Bhopal, Feb 17 (IANS): A district court here on Monday extended the judicial custody of former RTO constable Saurabh Sharma and his two aides Chetan Gaur and Sharad Jaiswal by 14 days. They were produced in court after the 6-day custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) expired on Monday.

Now, the trio will be under judicial remand till March 3, 2025.

Sharma and his associates, who are facing charges of corruption, were sent to ED's custody for questioning in a disproportionate assets case on February 12. They were arrested by Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Police on January 28 and 29 in connection with the properties worth several crores recovered during raids at their premises.

Subsequently, the ED, which is carrying out a parallel investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), took them into custody for interrogation. ED conducted its first raids on December 27 last year and searched at least eight premises across the state covering Bhopal, Gwalior, and Jabalpur. The searches covered the residential premises of Saurabh Sharma, Chetan Singh Gaur, Sharad Jaiswal, and others.

According to ED's earlier statements, during the searches, movable assets in the form of fixed deposits (FDs) of more than Rs 6 crore were identified in the name of Chetan Singh Gaur, and bank balance of more than Rs 4 crore was found in the name of family members and companies of Saurabh Sharma. The ED had recovered documents pertaining to immovable assets, and properties worth over Rs 23 crore in the name of various companies and family members of Saurabh Sharma.

On January 17, the ED again conducted raids across several places including Pune, Gwalior and Bhopal and found cash and valuables worth Rs 52 lakh, while the Income Tax (IT) department, which has recovered more than 52 kg gold and cash amount of Rs 11 crore from an abandoned car belonging to Chetan Gaur, was yet to move an application in the court to get permission for interrogation.