\u201c\u2026Is it the duty of the ED, Amit Shah, to collect the party\u2019s hard disk, candidate list?\u2026 The nasty, naughty Home Minister who cannot protect the country and is taking away all my party documents. What will be the result if I raid the BJP party office? On one side, they are deleting the names of all the voters by carrying out the SIR in West Bengal\u2026Because of the elections, they are collecting all the information about my party,” Banerjee said.<\/p>\n
Why Is ED Conducting Raids?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe ED conducted search operations at 10 premises, including six in West Bengal and four in Delhi, linked to Anup Majee as per the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It alleged that the action was undertaken till the arrival of Mamata Benrjee and police personnel, who \u201cforcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence in 2 of the premises”.<\/p>\n
Anup Majee is the main accused in a 2020 illegal coal mining scam case, estimated to be worth billions. The ED had also alleged that Anup Majee alias Lala was running an organised syndicate involved in illegal mining and theft of coal from leasehold areas of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL). The CBI has conducted several raids on his hideouts in the past few months, and in 2021, the ED had summoned TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee\u2019s wife Rujira Banerjee for questioning.<\/p>\n
In an official statement on Thursday, the ED said that investigation revealed that a large part of the coal illegally excavated by Majee\u2019s gang was linked to hawala operators. \u201cOne hawala operator linked to layering of proceeds of crime of coal sm,uggling had facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to Indian Pac Consulting Private Limited,” it said.<\/p>\n
\n