Court Sends Ex-RTO, Wife To Jail For 3 Years In Money Laundering Case

A Special PMLA Court in Bengaluru awarded a three-year jail term to J V Ramaiah, RTO, Nagamangala Mandya district, Karnataka and his wife M Lalitha for accumulating disproportionate assets of Rs. 1,24,23,929, which were almost 415.3% of their known sources of income.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on both of them.
The Enforcement Directorate case is on the basis of the FIR lodged in 2009 by the Karnataka Lokayukta, Kolar, under sections 13(1)(e)r/w 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Ramaiah for accumulating disproportionate assets of Rs. 1,24,23,929.
The ED lodged the ECIR under section 3 of the PMLA. An investigation was carried out and a Provisional Attachment Order was issued against Ramaiah and Lalitha under section 5(2) of the PMLA, attaching properties worth Rs. 70,27,857.
The Provisional Attachment Order was confirmed by the adjudicating authority.
Later a prosecution complaint was filed in 2018 by the department against Ramaiah and Lalitha before the Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Bengaluru (Special Court, PMLA).
The court took cognizance of the prosecution complaint and framed the charges in 2019.
The evidence in the matter closed in 2022. After hearing the arguments of the special public prosecutor, the court had reserved the pronouncement of the judgement for July 29.
The prosecution complaint withstood all the legal challenges and finally established the offences of the accused under the PMLA.
The attached properties worth Rs. 70,25,857 have also been confiscated by the court.