Properties, FDs of MBU owner worth Rs 194 crore attached
Bhanu P Lohumi
Tribune News Service
Shimla, January 29
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached land, residential and commercial properties and fixed deposits amounting to Rs 194.17 crore belonging to chairman of Manav Bharti Charitable Trust Raj Kumar Rana, and his family members under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Rana, owner of Manav Bharti University, involved in fake degree scam had purchased properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees in his name and in the name of his family members in Himachal and Rajasthan from the income of fake degrees sold in the past one decade.
Confirming that the properties have been attached, sources in the police department said that it is just the beginning as the properties are in crores of rupees. Land and commercial properties worth Rs 186 crores and six fixed deposits receipts (FDRs) amounting to Rs 7 crores have been attached.
The family owns huge chunk of land in Sirmaur and Solan districts of Himachal besides Udaipur and Sirohi districts of Rajasthan. Preliminary investigations had revealed that the university had sold over one lakh fake degrees for Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh each since its inception in 2009.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had sought details of the properties owned and held by seven persons – Raj Kumar Rana, his wife Ashoni Kanwar, son Mandeep Rana, daughter Aaina Rana and employees, namely Anupama Thakur (registrar), Krishan Kumar (former registrar) and Parmod Kumar (data entry operator).
Rana was arrested in the case and later granted bail. Several intriguing facts have surfaced about the MBU during the probe as the investigating agencies had recovered blank copies, answer sheets and certificates of courses not offered.
DGP Himachal Pradesh Sanjay Kundu had handed over the case to the CID following which a SIT comprising members of CID, Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department and SIT probing the case was constituted.
The UGC letter dated August 30, 2019 had pointed out that Manav Bharti University (Solan) allegedly sold about 5 lakh degrees and asked the authorities concerned to conduct a thorough enquiry into the allegations of sale of fake degrees following which three cases were registered under sections 420, 467, 468 and 120 B of IPC in police station Dharampur in Solan district.
