The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 25 lakh of Asha Shaji, the wife of IUML leader and former legislator K M Shaji, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The attached assets include a residential property in Kozhikode, said ED.

ED had initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau against K M Shaji, who had been then a legislator representing Azhikode in Kannur district, in April, 2020.

The FIR had claimed that Shaji had taken a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from a teacher on behalf of the management of a government-aided school in his constituency in 2016. Later, the teacher was given a permanent appointment at the same school.

An official communication said an ED probe had revealed that Shaji allegedly used a substantial portion of the money for constructing the residential property in the name of his wife.

(With inputs from agencies)