E-Paper
ED finds ₹1.4 crore cash in raid, links it to ‘influential political person’
On Wednesday, ED carried out searches at the office of a real estate firm at Earle Street near Ballygunge and seized ₹1.4 crore.
KOLKATA: A ‘highly influential political person’ was trying to invest money allegedly generated from coal smuggling to purchase a guest house in south Kolkata at an undervalued price, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement on Thursday.
“It appears that this person was also involved in handling illegal cash of a minister,” the federal agency said in the statement.
On Wednesday, ED carried out searches at the office of a real estate firm at Earle Street near Ballygunge and seized ₹1.4 crore.
“A specific intelligence input was gathered that one highly influential political person was making an attempt to launder the proceeds of crime originating from coal smuggling through his close confidant,” the statement said.
It added that the amount seized by the agency was to be used to buy a guest house.
“While the market value of the property was ₹12 crore, registry of the property was done on Wednesday at ₹3 crore. The remaining amount was supposed to be paid in cash with proceeds of the coal smuggling,” said an ED official.
ED officials claimed that the material seized by them pointed to what they called a ‘greater nexus’ between the accused and that the influential political person was also handling the illegal cash of a minister.
The federal agency, however, is yet to name the influential person and the minister.
It said further investigation is in progress.
The raids triggered a political slugfest with the BJP claiming that the ‘close confidant’ of the influential political person referred to by ED was seen with Mamata Banerjee during her election campaign in Bhawanipore.
“Manjit Singh Grewal @ Jitta; who handled @MamataOfficial’s Bhabanipur Byelection campaign, has been named in @dir_ed’s Press Release. He can be seen alongside CM & her politician brother Kartik Banerjee. Will CM clarify, like Partha Chatterjee, she’d also take action against him?” tweeted Suvendu Adhikari, BJP legislator and leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly.
Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal minister Firhand Hakim said it was just another instance of the BJP using central agencies to settle political scores.
“It is very common that central agencies raid offices and residences of businessmen across the country and sometimes seize unaccounted cash. What has the TMC to do with this? BJP leaders have the maximum unaccounted cash. But as they are at the Centre, agencies are being used against non-BJP parties,” Hakim told reporters in Kolkata.
The Central Bureau of Investigation registered the coal smuggling case in November 2020. It is alleged that the illegally mined coal, worth thousands of crores of rupees, was sold by a racket operating in the western parts of West Bengal, where the Eastern Coalfields Limited runs several mines. It is alleged that proceeds from the coal trade went to political leaders.
ED filed its first chargesheet in the case in Delhi in August 2021.
Federal agencies, such as CBI and ED have also questioned Abhishek Banerjee, TMC general secretary and nephew of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. His wife and sister-in-law were also questioned. West Bengal law minister Moloy Ghatak’s house was raided and he was questioned in the same case.
