The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches at multiple locations in West Bengal in connection with a case of illegal coal mining.
The money laundering probe is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in November last year against “mastermind” Anup Majhi and others. Among the premises searched by the ED in Durgapur, Asansol, South Kolkata and others places were those linked to a businessman and a chartered accountant.
Some of the suspects were involved in laundering the funds generated through the illegal mining activities. “It is alleged that certain officials in the local administration were also being regularly bribed to evade legal action,” said an official.
Since November 2020, the CBI has conducted searches at several places across in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The agency recently recorded the witness statement of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s wife.
The case alleges illegal mining and theft of coal from Kunustoria and Majora collieries in West Burdwan.
The CBI has arraigned Anup Majhi, besides two General Managers, Amit Kumar Dhar (then of the Kunustoria area) and Jayesh Chandra Rai (the Kajora area); Chief of Security (Asansol) Tanmay Das; Area Security Inspector (Kunustoria) Dhananjay Rai; and Security In-Charge (Kajora area) Debashish of the Eastern Coalfields Limited. The role of Railway and Central Industrial Security Force officials is also being probed.
