ED to open Zonal Office in Bhubaneswar

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has finally realised the importance of setting up a zonal office in Odisha following the rising cases of money laundering and illegal financial scams in the state. The multi-crore chit fund scam has forced the ED to take a different stand on this issue.

Enforcement Directorate Director Rajan S Katoch, who attended the. Annual conference of the agency in Bhubaneswar, has confirmed that ED will soon open a zonal office in Bhubaneswar. An advertisement for recrutiment of a Joint Director (JD) has already been published in newspapers.

Katoch expressed confidence that the process will be completed soon. He, however, admitted the tough challenge ED is currently facing in the wake of rising financial scams and money laundering cases elsewhere in the country. “We have only one-third of sanctioned manpower as of today. We are making all efforts to fill up all vacant posts, but it will take around 2-3 years, ” he said.

“We are making continuous efforts to improve our manpower and technology in Odisha as well as across the country to deal with all cases effectively. We recently inaugurated a cyber forensic laboratory at our headquarters in New Delhi, which will help us recover data from electronic chips and gadgets,” he said.