India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has cracked down on a major land fraud case in Assam, attaching properties worth over Rs 94 lakh linked to senior civil servants’ housing project. The Guwahati Zonal Office of the ED provisionally seized eight immovable assets belonging to Rajendra Nath under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
This action stems from an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds by the All India Services Officers Co-operative Group Housing Society, which includes IAS, IPS, and IFS officers. The society aimed to build a residential colony, but things went wrong when it handed over Rs 3.60 crore as an advance to Sautik Goswami to buy 86 bighas of land.
Goswami never delivered the land, refunding only Rs 50 lakh. The ED labels the remaining Rs 3.10 crore as “proceeds of crime” from the fraud. Probes show Goswami struck a private deal with Nath, making large cash payments backed by seized receipts and witness statements under PMLA.
After the scam, Nath snapped up several properties from 2016 to 2023 that don’t match his reported income. The attached assets are plots in villages like Kukurmara, Jogipara, Barhanti Maniari, Bangara, Kawaimari, and Rampur in Assam.
The ED has filed a prosecution complaint against Goswami and Nath, but the court hasn’t yet taken it up. It all started with a police FIR at Guwahati’s Basistha station naming Goswami, Nath, and others.
This case shines a spotlight on how a trusted cooperative for top bureaucrats got tangled in a conspiracy that betrayed public faith. The ED says investigations continue.
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