E-Paper
ED frames charges against former TMC youth wing leader in smuggling case
ED special prosecutor Nitesh Rana on Monday requested the court to take the cognizance of the charge sheet while arguing that the accused were involved in money laundering.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against former Trinamool Congress youth wing leader Vinay Mishra, his brother Vikas Mishra and Mohammad Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of a cattle smuggling racket across the India-Bangladesh border, people familiar with the development said.
Along with the Mishras and Haque, the ED charge sheet, filed under prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) in a Delhi court on April 16, also names same companies that were allegedly used for laundering money made through the cattle smuggling. The racket involves several Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, Customs department officials, police officers, smugglers and politicians from West Bengal.
ED special prosecutor Nitesh Rana on Monday requested the court to take the cognizance of the charge sheet while arguing that the accused were involved in money laundering.
The central anti-money laundering agency had arrested Haque on February 18 this year after several hours of questioning in Delhi while Vikas Mishra was arrested in March last year.
Vinay Mishra left India in 2020 and acquired citizenship of Vanuatu, a chain of 80 islands in the south pacific. His lawyers informed the Calcutta high court last year that he had renounced his Indian citizenship in November 2020 and the application was cleared by the Indian consulate general in Dubai.
A Kolkata-based businessman who was a general secretary of the TMC’s youth wing, Vinay Mishra is a prime accused not only in the cattle smuggling case but also in an illegal coal mining scandal, being investigated by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The ED’s PMLA probe in the cattle smuggling case is based on a CBI FIR filed in 2020, which alleges that cattle seized by the BSF at the border were undervalued and auctioned with the help of some customs officers so that traders could buy these at very low prices and legally sell them again in Bangladesh. Part of the sale proceeds allegedly went to some TMC leaders and government officers.
Three traders, Haque, Anarul SK and Mohammad Golam Mostafa, were part of the nexus, according to the FIR. Two BSF Commandants - Satish Kumar and Jibu D Mathew – were also arrested in the case.
The FIR states that Haque used to pay ₹2,000 per head of cattle to BSF officials and ₹500 to the concerned Customs officials. “Besides, Customs’ officials used to take 10% of the auction price as bribe from successful bidders like Enamul Haque, Golam Mostafa and Anarul SK etc,” the report states. Subsequently, BSF was to be paid ₹50 per seized head of cattle for feeding it by the successful bidders.
The ED has so far identified proceeds of crime worth ₹418 crore in the cattle smuggling probe. Assets worth ₹11.67 crore belonging to the accused, including an apartment worth ₹5.25 crore in Delhi’s CR Park owned by Haque, have also been attached.
HT could not locate legal representatives of the Mishras and Haque.
TMC national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy refused to make any comment.
