The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday intensified its probe in the multi-million dollar sextortion case linked to the alleged lady blackmailer Archana Nag and her husband Jagabandhu Chand.
The investigating agency is all set to tighten the noose around many more high-profile profile and prepared a second list of many high-profile people for interrogation.
The list includes the names of many land and property owners, gold and jewellery traders and political leaders. The list was prepared based on the revelations and statements of Archana’s aide Shraddhanjali, Chandan and Khageswar Patra during interrogation.
The Central agency is also probing into the bank transactions of all those involved in the case. The objective is to solve the mystery surrounding bank transactions of Archana, her husband and her associates.
The ED officials are looking into all details of the financial transactions amounting to Rs 37 lakh between Khageswar Patra and Nag-Chand couple. More and more skeletons are expected to tumble out of the closet as the probe progresses.
Meanwhile, the Nag-Chand couple will be once again taken on remand from November 30. Taking the honeytrap couple in remand will help the ED unearth more mysteries surrounding the suspicious financial transactions.
Earlier, Khageswar Patra and Shradhanjali Behera, the associates of Archana Nag, who deposed before the ED revealed how she used them to honey trapping high-profile people and how the deals were being fixed.
Shradhanjali, who was grilled for around 14 hours by the ED, reportedly revealed before the officials names of some influential people from whom Archana had allegedly extorted money. She also shared modus operandi adopted by Archana to capture photographs and shoot videos of victims to trap and extort money.
Similarly, businessman Amiyakant Das and Odia film producer Akshaya Parija had appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in the recent past.
Das, owner of AK Associates, had deposited Rs 10 lakh in the bank account of Archana and her husband Jagabandhu in 2021-22. Das was quizzed for over 8 hours and said that he came in contact with Archana through Facebook.
After interrogation, he admitted before media to have given over Rs 7 lakhs to Archana in two installments for the treatment of her husband after stepping out of the ED office.
Odia film producer Parija also appeared before ED as he had filed a complaint against Archana and Sradhanjali over blackmailing and demanding Rs 3 crore.
(Reported by Alok Mohanty)