Guwahati, May 9: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Guwahati Zonal Office, has provisionally attached three immovable properties valued at around Rs 65.60 lakh in connection with a disproportionate assets case involving a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official and his wife, officials said on Saturday.
According to the ED, the action was taken under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, against Hem Chandra Borah, Deputy Chief Engineer of NFR, and his wife Gayatree Saikia, a government school teacher at Bhaskar Bidyapith Higher Secondary School in Guwahati. The investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Anti-Corruption Branch-I, New Delhi, against Borah under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Officials said Gayatree Saikia was also named in the case under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Subsequently, the CBI filed a chargesheet before the competent court on March 25, 2025. According to the ED, a detailed analysis of the CBI chargesheet and independent enquiries conducted under the PMLA revealed that during the check period between April 1, 2016 and January 17, 2021, Borah allegedly accumulated assets grossly disproportionate to his known sources of income in connivance with his wife.
The agency alleged that the disproportionate assets amounted to nearly Rs 73.76 lakh, constituting around 86.88 per cent of the couple’s total legitimate income during the period under scrutiny. Officials further alleged that the accused adopted a systematic method to launder the proceeds of crime.
The ED investigation revealed that despite operating seven bank accounts between them, the total ATM and UPI withdrawals made by the couple amounted to only Rs 1.36 lakh, indicating minimal use of banking channels for household expenditure. According to investigators, illicit cash allegedly received as gratification was used for day-to-day expenses, while legitimate salary income was retained in bank accounts and later channelled through cheque payments for acquisition of immovable properties in an attempt to project them as untainted assets. Further investigation in the case is underway, officials added.
IANS
