I-PAC raids ‘met with resistance’ from Mamata, ED set to knock on High Court doors, top officers say

Sources said the searches were conducted at six premises of the company in Kolkata and four in Delhi, including the residence of Ipac director Pratik Jain. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

Banerjee, on her part, said, “This is most unfortunate that ED raided the house and office of our IT wing and its head. They are trying to collect all the information. I rang up Pratik, he is in charge of my party.”

The ED is preparing to file a petition in the Kolkata High Court over this, it is learnt. “We are going to the HC against the state government interfering in a statutory investigation. We have not been allowed to conduct searches in accordance with the law,” the officer claimed.

ED sources claimed the searches were conducted on the basis of “fresh evidence” found in a coal pilferage case being investigated by CBI and ED in West Bengal. The officer said the raids were meant to probe further into alleged hawala transactions.

The ED case is based on a CBI FIR of 2020 with regard to alleged illegal mining and pilferage of coal from the leasehold area of Eastern Coalfields Ltd in certain parts of West Bengal. ECL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, a Public Sector Undertaking, and does coal mining in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Both the CBI and ED have earlier questioned Rujuira Banerjee, wife of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, in the case, alleging that she had links with scam kingpin Anup Majee. ED has also questioned Abhishek in connection with the case.

The agency had questioned Banerjee about Rs 6 crore cash allegedly received in a company, LTB Infraconsultancy Pvt Ltd, owned by TMC youth leader Vinay Mishra and his brother Vikas Mishra. Vikas has been arrested by the agency, while Vinay is allegedly absconding, having acquired citizenship of another nation, the ED said.

In April 2021, ED had told a special court that Rujira and her sister were paid a “substantial amount” in London and Thailand by the key accused in the case. The agency made this claim while seeking further custody of an arrested accused, Ashok Kumar Mishra, who was the inspector-in-charge of Bankura police station in West Bengal’s Purulia district and was alleged to be a close associate of the kingpin, Anup Majee alias Lala.

The ED also claimed that during questioning, Ashok Mishra said this transaction was made at the behest of Vinay and that the funds were sourced from Majee.

The CBI case is based on an inspection carried out by the Vigilance Department and ECL task force in May-August last year, where alleged “evidence of extensive illegal mining in the leasehold area of ECL and its transportation was found”.

“The team found several machines which were used for excavating coal from illegal mining. During these inspections, a large number of vehicles and equipment used in illegal coal mining/its transportation and illegally excavated coal have been seized. Several instances of installation of illegal weigh bridges in concrete form were also detected, which confirms illegal coal mining and transportation from ECL areas in an organised manner on a very large scale,” the CBI FIR has said.

CISF personnel at Loudon street. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

“He admitted that he arranged to transfer around 1-1.5 crore to Delhi as asked by Vinay Mishra. This amount was arranged from Anup Majee through Niraj Singh… he stated that Vinay Mishra was the secretary of TMC and was very close to Member of Parliament Shri Abhishek Banerjee; that it’s a political pressure and knowing his clout in the party, he (Ashok) has to obey him (Vinay) or his (Ashok) career will be finished; that he facilitated in transferring funds through non-banking channel from India to London for a close relative of Shri Abhishek Banerjee; … that the subject transaction of Thailand was related to Rujira Banerjee who is the close relative of Abhishek Banerjee,” the ED submission said.

It has claimed Niraj Singh, who is Majee’s accountant, “assisted in transferring substantial funds derived from POC, to Shri Abhishek Banerjee’s close relative (Sister in Law & Wife) at London & Thailand”.

The agency has claimed that from the seized records and other digital evidence, it was found that Ashok Mishra allegedly received Rs 168 crore as proceeds of crime through illegal coal mining and pilferage in 109 days in 2020. It said records also show that Majee has allegedly generated Rs 1,352 crore through illegal coal mining in 2020 and 2021.

Citing the statement of a “close confidant” of Majee, the ED has said that Majee allegedly conducted his illegal mining business “smoothly” by “managing senior functionaries of [the ruling] political party of West Bengal through Ashok Kumar Mishra”. Citing the same statement, it said that “major fund is distributed to manage political stalwarts of the ruling party”.