The Enforcement Directorate, on Thursday, raided over a dozen locations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation against former minister of Uttar Pradesh, Gayatri Prajapati, and his family members, official sources said.

Apart from Amethi, raids were carried out at 17 locations in Lucknow and Mumbai.

The Enforcement Directorate raided the houses of Prajapati in Awas Vikas Colony and Gangaganj localities of Amethi. Security forces were deployed outside the house at the time of raid and many officers were present on the spot.

At the time of the raid, Gayatri Prajapati’s wife Maharaji Devi and younger son Anurag Prajapati were also present in the house.

The money laundering case, filed by the ED in 2021, stems from an Uttar Pradesh Vigilance department FIR against Prajapati and those linked to him on charges of illegal sand mining and possession of disproportionate assets among others.

During the raids on January 16 last, the central agency had found evidence of investment in real estate companies by Gayatri Prajapati and his sons.

Continuing the action further, the raids were carried out on Thursday and the ED team was examining all the documents.

According to sources, the ED also raided the house of Gayatri Prajapati’s close female friend Gudda Devi in Lucknow. This female friend of the former minister had a dispute with a police officer. The officer had lodged a report against her.

Sources said the ED recovered documents showing that Prajapati had purchased land worth crores of rupees in the name of this woman friend in Gosainganj on Sultanpur Road in Lucknow. 

The central agency had in January attached 10 bighas of land in Mohanlalganj area of Lucknow. Besides, the ED also attached six flats in Mumbai and a house in Lucknow, worth more than Rs 13 crore of Prajapati, his family members and associates. The action came after the ED conducted searches.

Prajapati, while holding the post of mining minister of Uttar Pradesh, misused his official position and acquired huge assets disproportionate to his known sources of income in the name of his family members, close associates and friends that was not commensurate with their known sources of income, the ED had said.

The former minister and his family members laundered the illicit funds generated during his tenure as a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government through various “fictitious and sham” transactions and acquired multiple assets, the ED alleged.

“He also used bank accounts of his family members to deposit the illegitimate cash, earned by him for his illegal gains,” the central agency had said.