Overview
- The Enforcement Directorate registered a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case after documents from a Karnataka Lokayukta FIR prompted deeper scrutiny.
- ED teams carried out coordinated searches at 14 sites linked to excise officials on June 24 and 25 and recovered digital devices, property papers and a cash ledger said to record bribe distribution.
- Investigators seized about Rs 5.5 crore in cash, gold valued near Rs 7.8 crore and foreign currency worth roughly Rs 3.3 lakh, a total the ED values at about Rs 13.3 crore.
- Belagavi Additional Excise Commissioner Y. D. Manjunath is a central subject of the inquiry and is publicly noted as related to prominent politicians; several other officers, family members and associates were also searched.
- No arrests have been announced so far and the ED is conducting forensic analysis, asset tracing and asking people to produce records under deadlines while probing claims that licences were held in benami names and used to launder funds.