The attachment was carried out under a relevant section of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The ED said in a statement that the probe against Prasanta Kumar Dutta, who retired as a Deputy Inspector-General in 2019, was initiated based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the Assam police’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Branch.

The police FIR said that Dutta, during his service period from 1992 to 2019, amassed assets grossly disproportionate to his known sources of income. He and his wife were found to possess undisclosed assets of about Rs 77.21 crore against a disclosed income of Rs 7.23 crore and disclosed expenditure of Rs 9.04 crore.