Louis Berger bribery case: ED registers case in Guwahati

Kolkata: Enforcement Directorate today registered a money laundering FIR in Louis Berger bribery case to probe charges of bribing Indian officials with several crores of rupees to win a major water developmental project in Guwahati.

Officials said Enforcement Directorate's Eastern Region office based here directed its office in Assam to register a complaint under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of a police complaint that was registered by a local NGO sometime back in the state.

ED is the first central probe agency to have taken over investigation in this case. The Goa police (Crime Branch) are already probing the case and it arrested former state Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao yesterday.

"The police FIR was filed in the Kamrup police station by an NGO against Louis Berger sometime back. The firm was taken as a consultant for water supply project by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority," sources said.

ED has named the firm and unidentified individuals in its criminal complaint and will soon seek documents from the company.

"The scope of adding more names to the FIR is open," they said.

Sources said a similar FIR would soon be filed by ED in Goa.

The officials of the New Jersey-based company had confessed in the US last month of paying bribe to Indian officials and ministers for winning consultancy of Water Augmentation and Sewerage pipeline project under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) fuding.