ED arrests Mahesh Chand Sharma, former Member of Indian Nursing Council and his son in DA case

New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Mahesh Chand Sharma and his son Mohit Sharma both resident of RAG Hospital, Mansarovar, Jaipur under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a case relating to amassing of disproportionate of assets by public servant. Both the accused were produced before the designated PMLA Court at Jaipur on 4/9/2020 and, on the prayer made by ED, the Hon’ble Court granted custody of both the accused to the ED for a period of 10 days.

ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR and charge sheet filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jaipur against Mahesh Chand Sharma, his sons Mohit Sharma, Ankit Sharma, his wife Meena Devi and others. Mahesh Chand Sharma had worked in Health and Medical department of Rajasthan Government as Nursing tutor (Nursing Grade-2), College of Nursing, SMS Medical College and was also as Member of India Nursing Council (INC), New Delhi. He along with his associate was trapped by officers of ACB for accepting bribe of Rs. 5 lakhs from a nursing institute for adding the name of the institute on the website of INC. Investigation conducted by State ACB established that the accused had amassed illicit earning totalling Rs. 10.60 crores which was 372% more than his known/legal source of income.

During the course of investigation under PMLA, searches were conducted at the residential premises of accused at RAG Hospital, Mansarovar, Jaipur and at the premises of his associates Kishan Lal Saini at Naina Vihar, Sanganer, Jaipur. These searches resulted in recovery of large number of incriminating documents including property documents related to a number of plots, benami properties and high value financial transactions etc. Investigation conducted so far revealed identification of additional properties to the tune of Rs. 4 Crores and accordingly total illegal earning of Mahesh Chand Sharma from the criminal activities comes to Rs. 14.6 crores. So far two Provisional Attachment Orders amounting to Rs. 4.76 crores and Rs. 7.86 crores have been issued on 03.07.2019 and 24.6.2020 respectively.

Further investigation in the matter is under progress and the accused is under custodial interrogation to unearth all the illegal assets amassed by him by corrupt practices while working as a public servant.