ED attaches assets worth Rs 5 cr in case against late IAS officer Arvind Joshi

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it had attached fresh assets -- including residential and agricultural lands and a resort -- worth Rs 5 crore in its money laundering investigation against late Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Arvind Joshi. Joshi, a former principal secretary rank officer, died in 2022 at the age of 68. He and his former IAS wife Tinoo Joshi are being investigated by the ED in an alleged Rs 41.87-crore disproportionate assets (DA) money laundering case for more than eight years now. The couple from the 1979-batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) first came under the radar of the probe agencies after the Income Tax Department raided their Bhopal residence in February, 2010, on charges of tax evasion and recovered Rs 3 crore in cash. The federal probe agency said in a statement that a provisional order had been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach residential plots, agricultural lands, and a functional resort located in Bhopal district. The ED, in a statement, called these properties worth Rs 5 crore as ''proceeds of crime'' registered in the name of Joshi, his family members, as well as his ''benami'' associate, S P Kohli. The agency had earlier issued a similar attachment order against the couple and filed a chargesheet against them. The money laundering case stems from a Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta Police FIR against Joshi for possessing DA between July 1979 and December 10, 2010. It was alleged by the ED that their assets were 3,151.32 per cent more than their known sources of income. The two were dismissed from service in 2014.