Man gets 5-year jail in Bihar's first PMLA conviction

Patna : A special court here on Thursday sentenced a man to five-year imprisonment, including rigorous imprisonment for one year, in a money laundering case, said to be first such conviction in the state.

An Enforcement Directorate statement said that Mohammad Naushad was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs five lakh, while his attached assets have been confiscated.

Bihar Police had registered a case against Naushad in November 2009 for trading in illegal arms. Fake Indian Currency Notes with a face value of Rs 1.4 lakh were seized from his residence. The ED initiated a PMLA case against him in 2013.

The ED investigation revealed that Naushad earned his ill-gotten money through crime and utilised it to acquire immovable property, a house valued at Rs 22.56 lakh, in Munger district in his own name during 2009-2010.

In 2016, the ED provisionally attached Naushad's property and charge-sheeted him in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act case.