Retired Assam IPS Officer Prasanta Kumar Dutta’s ₹53.28 Crore Properties Attached in Money‑Laundering Probe

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties worth about ₹53.28 crore in connection with a money‑laundering case against retired Assam IPS officer Prasanta Kumar Dutta. The attachment includes four hotels in Guwahati – Hotel Bhargav, Bhargav Inn, Hotel Bhargav (Lokhra Chariali) and Hotel Bhargav Grand – and two residential flats in Andheri (West), Mumbai.

Investigators allege Dutta amassed assets grossly disproportionate to his declared income of ₹7.23 crore (and his wife’s similar income), with undisclosed wealth estimated at around ₹77.21 crore and net disproportionate assets of roughly ₹79 crore. The proceeds of crime were allegedly laundered through three shell companies – Mahamaya Estates Pvt Ltd, Ishan Commercial Pvt Ltd and Murari Commodities Pvt Ltd – that have no real offices. Over ₹14.74 crore in unexplained cash was routed through family members and these entities via fictitious shareholders and circular bank transfers before being invested in the hotels and flats.

The ED also says Dutta, after retirement, transferred 370,000 shares of Ishan Commercial from dummy shareholders to his own name, becoming the majority shareholder of the firm that owns three of the attached hotels. Further investigation is ongoing.