Archana Nag case: Shradhanjali appears before ED for third time

Bhubaneswar: Shradhanjali Behera, an associate of sextortion accused and blackmailer Archana Nag, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here today.

Following repeated summons, the accused appeared before the ED for third time for interrogation in a money laundering case.

Recently, Orissa High Court had rejected the interim protection plea of Shradhanjali following which visited the ED Office in Bhubaneswar.

The ED is probing a money laundering case filed against Archana Nag, her husband Jagabandhu Chand, business associates Khageswar Patra and Shradhanjali Behera.

Archana had allegedly deposited significant amount of money in Shradhanjali’s bank account between 2017 and 2022.

Meanwhile, the ED has arrested Archana under section 19 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Following her arrest, the central investigative agency took both Archana and her husband on six and nine days remand period respectively for grilling in the high-profile honeytrap case.

The ED had already grilled many key personalities including Ollywood producer Akshay Parija, filmmaker Pramod Swain, businessman Amiyakant Das, BJD MLA Sudhir Samal’s brother Gangadhar Samal, property dealer Prabhat Ranjan Pati, hotelier Siba Prasad Das and architect Ranjit Behera.

Archana is accused of extorting money from influential persons by blackmailing them with videos of intimate moments between her and them. Shradhanjali was allegedly involved in the offence.

Earlier, Archana was arrested by the Commissionerate Police in the sextortion case following allegation by Parija.

According to the complaint, Archana had demanded Rs 3 crore from Parija threatening him of making his objectionable videos and photographs with a woman public.