ED files supplementary PMLA complaint in Alirajpur school-fund case

What the Record Shows

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Indore Sub-Zonal Office, filed a supplementary prosecution complaint on 9 July 2026 before the Special Judge (PMLA), Indore, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), in connection with the fraudulent clearance of bills and misappropriation of government funds from the Block Education Office (BEO), Katthiwada, District Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh, naming Kamal Rathore and other accused persons. It follows an original prosecution complaint the agency filed in the same matter on 29 September 2025.

According to the ED, the case concerns fraudulent treasury payments of Rs 20.47 crore drawn from the Block Education Office between 2018 and 2023. The agency has provisionally attached, seized or frozen assets in the case in stages: assets valued at Rs 4.43 crore were provisionally attached and, per the ED, confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA on 10 March 2026, and a further 56 residential plots with an estimated market value of more than Rs 6 crore were attached under a provisional attachment order dated 23 June 2026.

This is a prosecution complaint at the pre-trial stage, not a conviction. The ED states that the Special Court (PMLA), Indore has issued notices to the accused persons and that further investigation is in progress. No court has yet tried or established the allegations, and nothing has been proved against Kamal Rathore or any other accused.

How It Worked

The ED says it began its investigation on the basis of a first information report registered at Police Station Katthiwada, District Alirajpur, relating to fraudulent treasury payments of Rs 20.47 crore made from the Block Education Office during the period 2018 to 2023. That predicate police case is the trigger the money-laundering investigation is built upon.

The mechanism the agency describes is a treasury-clearance failure sustained over five years. The ED alleges that Kamal Rathore, in connivance with other accused persons, embezzled government funds from the treasury at Alirajpur through the fraudulent clearance of bills at the Block Education Office. Because the bills cleared the payment gate, per the agency, money left the treasury against claims the ED says were not owed.

What happened next is, in the ED's account, a textbook layering exercise. The proceeds of crime were, the agency alleges, routed through multiple bank accounts controlled and operated by Kamal Rathore and his family members, withdrawn in cash, and then applied to the purchase of agricultural land at Gandhwani, District Dhar. The ED further alleges that the agricultural land acquired from the proceeds was developed into a residential plotting project named "Shri Balaji Dham" with the intention of concealing the illicit origin of the assets and projecting tainted property as untainted, a real-estate layer designed to break the trail between the treasury and the final asset.

The procedural chain is dated in the record. Searches under PMLA led to the seizure of documents and the freezing of bank accounts; the ED provisionally attached assets of Rs 4.43 crore, confirmed on 10 March 2026; it attached 56 plots of the Shri Balaji Dham project on 23 June 2026; it filed its original prosecution complaint on 29 September 2025; and it filed the supplementary complaint on 9 July 2026.

Who Lost Money

The budget said to have been drained is the school-education allocation for Alirajpur, a tribal-majority district in western Madhya Pradesh where the sanctioned money was meant for schools and pupils rather than for the assets the ED says it ended up funding. The agency puts the fraudulent treasury payments at Rs 20.47 crore over the 2018 to 2023 period.

Against that alleged loss, the assets secured so far total in the region of Rs 10.4 crore: the Rs 4.43 crore attachment confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority on 10 March 2026, and the 56 residential plots valued at more than Rs 6 crore attached in June 2026. That leaves a clear gap between the roughly Rs 20.47 crore alleged and the value so far frozen.

As always, attachment is not recovery. The confirmed attachment and the plots remain frozen while the case runs; none of it has been confiscated or returned to the education department, and whether the money is recovered at all depends on the outcome of the proceedings before the Special Court.

Where It Stands Now

As of today the matter stands at the prosecution-complaint stage. The ED filed its supplementary complaint on 9 July 2026, the Special Court (PMLA), Indore has issued notices to the accused, and the agency says further investigation is in progress. There has been no trial verdict and no conviction. On re-checking the official record, the position stated in the ED's press release of 10 July 2026 is the current one.

The attachments sit at two different stages, and the distinction matters. The Rs 4.43 crore attachment has been confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA, which means it survived the first statutory test; the June 2026 attachment of the 56 plots remains provisional and must itself be confirmed within the PMLA timeline and can be contested on appeal. Neither confirmation amounts to confiscation, which only the Special Court can order.

A prosecution complaint contains allegations, not findings of guilt. Kamal Rathore and the other accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and due process continues. No response from the accused is on the public record at the time of writing.

What It Means

The value of this matter as a case study is its ordinariness. There is no exotic instrument here, only a district treasury that, on the ED's account, cleared fraudulent bills for five years before an outside agency reconstructed the trail. The lesson it points to is that the strongest control against this pattern is the bill-clearance gate inside the office itself, and that once money has left the treasury, the state is reduced to chasing it through banks and land records.

For a reader, the practical takeaway is about how to read the enforcement steps rather than any investment decision. A confirmed attachment is a stronger position for the agency than a provisional one, but neither returns money; recovery for a public body runs through confiscation and distribution long after the headline figure appears. Readers can follow how these cases resolve through Oquilia's enforcement archive, alongside the parallel Indore Municipal Corporation fake-bill complaint filed by the same ED office and other PMLA matters such as the SECI battery-storage guarantee case.

FAQ

Does this mean the people named are guilty?

No. A prosecution complaint contains allegations, not findings of guilt. Kamal Rathore and the other accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and due process continues before the Special Court (PMLA), Indore. Nothing in the ED's complaint has been tested or established at trial.

What exactly did the Enforcement Directorate file?

The ED filed a supplementary prosecution complaint on 9 July 2026 before the Special Judge (PMLA), Indore, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, adding to an original complaint of 29 September 2025 in the Block Education Office, Katthiwada treasury matter. The agency says further investigation is in progress.

What is the difference between a provisional and a confirmed attachment?

A provisional attachment freezes alleged proceeds of crime immediately, but it must be confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA to continue. Here the Rs 4.43 crore attachment was confirmed on 10 March 2026, while the 56-plot attachment of 23 June 2026 remains provisional. Neither is a confiscation, which only the Special Court can order.

Have the funds been recovered?

Not yet. The ED says assets of about Rs 10.4 crore, comprising the confirmed Rs 4.43 crore attachment and 56 plots worth more than Rs 6 crore, have been frozen against an alleged Rs 20.47 crore misappropriation. Attached property stays frozen while the case runs; any confiscation and return would follow only after the court decides.

Where can I read the official record?

The ED's press release of 10 July 2026, which records the supplementary prosecution complaint filed on 9 July 2026, is published on the Enforcement Directorate website and is linked below.

This report is based on the Enforcement Directorate press release dated 10 July 2026 recording the supplementary prosecution complaint filed before the Special Judge (PMLA), Indore on 9 July 2026, reviewed on 2 August 2026.