New Delhi, March 6: A man who impersonated an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer and extorted more than Rs 80 lakh from a builder and other victims has been arrested in Gurugram. He has been remanded to five days of ED custody for further questioning, an official said on Thursday.
Raviraj Kumar was arrested by the ED’s Gurugram Zonal Office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, for allegedly extorting money through fraud and deceit while posing as a senior ED officer. He is accused of using multiple SIM cards to hide his real identity and cheat several people. Investigations into his numerous bank accounts revealed that he had collected around Rs 80 lakh through these fraudulent activities.
Kumar was presented in a Special PMLA Court on Wednesday and was subsequently sent to ED custody for five days. The ED’s investigation followed an FIR filed at the Sector-10 Police Station in Gurugram, which named Kumar and other unknown individuals under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
The probe revealed that Kumar extorted money from a builder in Gurugram by threatening him with serious consequences. During the investigation, the ED gathered digital and documentary evidence, including bank statements, WhatsApp chats, and audio recordings, alongside the testimonies of several witnesses.
In a separate investigation in Sikkim, the ED's Gangtok Sub Zonal Office has provisionally attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 65.46 crore under PMLA, 2002. These assets are linked to the misappropriation and laundering of funds from the State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) by Dorjee Tshering Lepcha, the bank’s former General Manager (Operations).
The attached properties include four residential properties and land in Deorali, Syari, Ranipool, and Penlong, Sikkim. These assets were acquired using proceeds of crime from the misappropriation of funds at SBS. In addition, the ED has frozen bank balances and fixed deposits totaling approximately Rs 53.41 crore in the names of Lepcha and his family members.
The investigation into Lepcha began after an FIR was registered by the CID-PS in Gangtok under various sections of the IPC, 1860, and the Information Technology Act, 2000, later transferred to the Sikkim Vigilance Police. The ED’s probe revealed that Lepcha had masterminded a significant fraud by creating a fake bank account under the name of “AE Roads and Bridges Department, Government of Sikkim.” Funds were fraudulently transferred to this account through manipulation of General Ledger accounts for transactions involving the Central Bank of India (CBI) and State Bank of India (SBI). These illicit funds were then diverted to accounts controlled by Lepcha, his wife, other family members, and associates.
