# ED searches former MLA Malla Vijay Prasad’s Bhubaneswar home 2026-08-05T22:52:08+00:00 | India | Indian Opinion Desk Malla Vijay Prasad, a former MLA from Visakhapatnam, had his Bhubaneswar premises gone over on Wednesday by the Enforcement Directorate's zonal office as part of a widening money laundering probe tied to an alleged chit fund scheme. OdishaTV reported that investigators are combing through financial transactions, property records and other documents to trace where the alleged proceeds went, though the agency had given no official word on what the searches turned up. Prasad's company, Wellfare Buildings and Estates Pvt Ltd, stands accused of defrauding depositors across three states, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, of roughly Rs 1,200 crore, in a case the state police opened in 2019. He was taken into custody by the Crime Branch's Economic Offences Wing in 2021 over that scheme and was later freed on conditional bail by the Odisha High Court. This is not the first scrutiny of his affairs: the CBI had already gone through his office and home in 2016 over separate chit fund allegations. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Wednesday's searches are a fresh investigative step under the money laundering law rather than proof of guilt, even though the scale of the alleged fraud and the history of earlier CBI and Crime Branch action against Prasad may create a strong impression. The Enforcement Directorate's silence on what the searches turned up means the report offers no new findings beyond the fact that they took place. A formal Enforcement Directorate statement on the seized documents and electronic evidence, or fresh charges, is what would follow Wednesday's searches. ## Coverage - OdishaTV Tags: Enforcement Directorate, Malla Vijay Prasad Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/chit-fund-crackdown-bhubaneswar-ed-raids-former-visakhapatnam-mla-malla-vijay-prasads-residence/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/chit-fund-crackdown-bhubaneswar-ed-raids-former-visakhapatnam-mla-malla-vijay-prasads-residence/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.