ED in overdrive, intensifies action in 19 laundering cases | India News
New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate Ahead of assembly elections in Bengal since April 1, the crackdown on at least 19 money laundering cases involving ministers, police brass and alleged key political associates has been in overdrive.The agency on Monday summoned Rishi Raj, one of the directors of I-Pac, a political consultant involved. TMCSenior IAS officer Manish Jain, former principal secretary of the state education department, has also been summoned for questioning in connection with the SSC recruitment scam.Another director of I-PAC, Prateek Jainhas, has already been summoned multiple times, raising the probe into high-profile political consultations. Another director of I-Pac, Vinesh Chandel, is currently in ED custody.The intense scrutiny of I-PAC has sparked speculation that the TMC’s election campaign body has suspended its activities, which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has denied. The TMC said the “baseless speculations” were meant to create confusion.On Sunday, the ED raided the house of DCP Shantanu Sinha Biswas, Special Branch of the Kolkata Police, who is being investigated for allegedly taking fake NRI quota admissions in private medical colleges in West Bengal.IAS officer Manish Jain was interrogated only after raids on the premises of former minister and close aide of Banerjee Partha Chatterjee. Biswas, along with former Jhargram collector Sunil Aggarwal, is already under investigation in a sand mining money laundering case and a coal mining “scam”. His close aide JS Kamdar was arrested on Sunday, the ED accused him of having links with gangster Sona Pappur and being involved in “cross-border and domestic hawala transactions”.
