The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Kolkata Police filed against the company and its promoters in February 2021.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Kolkata Police filed against the company and its promoters in February 2021.
As battle lines are drawn between the Trinamool Congress [TMC] and the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] over the role of Central investigating agencies, the recent ‘seizures’ of large amounts of cash has put the West Bengal’s ruling party in a tight spot.
On September 10, Enforcement Directorate seized more than ₹7 crore cash from the residence of a businessman in the Kolkata’s Garden Reach area, allegedly in connection with a mobile gaming app fraud. This was the fifth seizure of cash by investigating agencies in the past two months, since large cash was seized from the residence of an associate of former Minister Partha Chatterjee.
With such regular seizures and photographs of the piles of cash being aired and published by media, the State’s ruling party is finding it difficult to counter allegations of corruption. Despite the seizure on September 10 having no links with the Trinamool Congress, a number of Ministers of the West Bengal government targeted the Central investigation agencies.
West Bengal Minister and Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim said that action needs to be taken against the guilty but through a series of raids the agencies are “destroying the economy of West Bengal”.
The cash sized on September 10 was from the residence of Kolkata-based businessman Nisar Ahmed Khan. The businessman’s son Amir Khan had allegedly launched an application E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding the public.
“ED has been carrying out search operations under the provisions of the PMLA, 2002 (on 10.09.2022) at 06 premises in Kolkata, in respect to an investigation relating to the Mobile Gaming Application. Huge cash (More than ₹7 Crore) has been found at the premises.” ED tweeted after the seizure.
The recent seizures of cash began on July 23, when cash valuing ₹23 crore and gold ornaments were seized by the ED from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, an associate of former Minister Partha Chatterjee. A few days later in July another pile of cash valuing ₹27 crore was seized from a different property of Ms. Mukherjee. The ED made those seizures in connection with a school service recruitment scam.
On September 3, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a press statement said that ₹80 lakh cash was seized from the premises of Raju Sahani, chairperson, Halishar Municipality and a TMC leader in connection with a chit fund scam. A day later on September 4, ₹1.40 crore cash was seized by West Bengal CID from a fish trader at Gazole in Malda.
While in connection with the arrest of TMC leader Anubrata Mondal no cash was recovered but, the CBI had pointed out a fixed deposit worth ₹16.97 crore, belonging to family members and associates of the TMC leader, was seized by the investigators. Mr. Mondal was arrested by the CBI on August 11 in a cross border cattle smuggling scam.
Commenting on the recovery of cash, Communist Party of India (Marxist) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said that these seizures indicate that “black money is dominating the political and economic landscape of the State”.
State BJP leadership including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had targeted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over these seizures and had alleged that the money seized from the aide of Partha Chatterjee was “someone’s else money”.
While the TMC leadership had described the arrests of its leaders by the central agencies as “politically motivated” the party chairperson, herself had appeared concerned about the cash seizures. “If, tomorrow the agencies say that Bobby (Firhad Hakim) has been arrested because huge cash was seized from him, people should not believe it. It will be completely staged,” Ms. Banerjee had said at a public meeting on August 29.
Political observers say alongside arrest of its key leaders, the TMC is concerned about the public perception with the regular seizure of unaccounted cash. “The cash which appears to have been sourced through illegal means is turning out to be a burden for TMC and the party is trying its best to disown and wash its hands from the unaccounted cash,” Biswanath Chakraborty, professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University said.