The Enforcement Directorate has arrested one accused in connection with the alleged illegal mining and theft of coal in West Bengal.
The accused has been identified as Vikas Mishra, brother of a TMC youth wing leader Vinay Mishra. The agency arrested him in Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He was produced before a court that remanded him to six-day custody of the ED.
In the past two months, the ED has conducted 49 searches in the case and recorded the statements of more than 40 persons.
The agency has so far gathered evidence related to proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹1 300 crore, generated from the illegal coal business. About ₹730 crore was received by the Mishra brothers on behalf of some influential persons and also for themselves, it said.
The ED probe is based on an FIR registered by the CBI in November last year, against alleged mastermind Anup Majhi and others. Having carried out multiple searches against the suspects, the CBI is now recording witness statements in its own case.
Among those summoned recently are TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira, sister-in-law Menka Gambhir, co-brother Ankush Arora and his father Pawan Arora.
The case alleges illegal mining and theft of coal from the Kunustoria and Majora collieries of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), which had been going on for the past several years in an organised manner. After the ECL detected the racket, it lodged a complaint seeking a CBI probe. Many officials of the ECL, the Central Industrial Security Force and the Railways are under the scanner for their alleged involvement.
The ED is unearthing the money trail. It is suspected that a significant portion of the money generated through the illegal mining and theft of coal has been diverted overseas.
