AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad zonal unit of Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached cash worth Rs 8.1 crore in Narayan Sai bribery case dating back to December 2013. ED had filed a case against tainted spiritual leader Asaram , his ashram and Narayan Sai under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in March last year.

The FIR was filed in Rs 13 crore Narayan Sai bribery case in 2013. In December 2013, Surat police had charged nine persons for allegedly trying to pay bribes. After Surat police filed the chargesheet in bribery case in February 2014, ED began its investigation.

Cash seizures were made from Uday Sanghani (Rs 1 crore), Surat-based builder Ketan Patel (Rs 7 crore) and Reena Vaghela (Rs 10 lakh). ED found out that these three people had taken money from Asaram’s ashram in Surat to give bribe to police officials at the behest of Narayan Sai.

According to sources, in his statement to ED, Sai had admitted that he had given a chit to Uday Sanghani through Naresh Mankani which had an address written on it from where money was to be taken.

Ketan Patel tried to prove on many occasions that the money belonged to him but ED found out that the source of the money was ashram.

ED is also probing all the properties and the transactions made by Asaram and the trust under PMLA. Taking a suo motu action under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), ED is also investigating all the money received by Asaram and the ashram from foreign countries.