Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 10: A search operation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) foremost to the recovery of at least ₹ 17 crore from the premises of a businessman in Kolkata on Saturday has provided ground for slugfest between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Though the raids were carried out on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Kolkata police way back in February, 2021, much before the keen electoral battle between the two parties in the state Assembly elections in May, last year, the BJP claimed that the money recovered was the “hidden black money” of the TMC and its leaders.
The anti-money laundering agency raided six locations in Kolkata including one in Garden Reach area, where the ED has brought in cash-counting machines to count the amount recovered. The search started on Saturday morning and counting of cash was still underway at the premises of Aamir Khan, who ED officials said was not cooperating with the agency.
The ED had taken up the investigation of the mobile gaming app fraud based on a case registered by the Kolkata Police. Visuals of the raids released by the ED show stacks of currency notes mostly in the ₹ 500 denomination. There are ₹ 2,000 and ₹ 200 notes as well.
The probe agency said the raids were connected to a mobile gaming application, which has been cheating people and the money recovered is what the accused amassed after duping the public. The cash was seized from the residence of Kolkata-based businessman Nisar Ahmed Khan, whose son, Amir Khan, had allegedly launched a mobile application, E-Nuggets, to defraud 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.
Officials of the agency were accompanied by personnel from the central forces to ensure law and order during the raids. Bank officials also accompanied the ED officers. The agency said it was investigating if this app and its operators had links with other “Chinese controlled” apps that had been issuing loans at exorbitant rates and trapping people in a debt trap.
Though ED has not given if Amir Khan had any political links, the BJP held the latest seizure as part of the “series” that began with the recovery of over Rs 57 crores in two tranches leading to the arrest of the TMC senior minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee on corruption charges, in July. To embarrass the TMC and the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Despite that Saturday’s seizure having no links to the TMC, a number of Ministers of the West Bengal government targeted the Central investigation agencies over it. West Bengal Minister and Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim said action needs to be taken against the guilty but the agencies were “destroying the economy of West Bengal” through a series of raids.
On September 3, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a press statement said ₹80 lakh cash had been seized from the premises of TMC leader Raju Sahani, Chairperson of the Halishar Municipality, in connection with a chit fund scam. A day later, on September 4, ₹1.40 crore cash was seized by the West Bengal CID from a fish trader at Gazole in Malda.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty also said the seizures indicated, “black money is dominating the political and economic landscape of the State.” The State BJP leadership, including Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari targeted Mamata Banerjee over the cash seizures and had alleged that the money seized from Chatterjee’s aide was “someone else’s money”.
While the TMC leadership had described the arrests of its leaders by the Central agencies as “politically motivated” the party chairperson has herself appeared concerned over 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.
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