Kolkata: A restaurant owned by former West Bengal Minister Sujit Bose earned over Rs 1 crore during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 despite remaining completely shut, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Bose, who served as a minister during the previous Trinamool Congress government, was arrested by ED officials on Monday night in connection with the multi-crore municipal recruitment scam after a marathon interrogation at the agency’s Salt Lake office on the outskirts of Kolkata.
He was presented at the special PMLA court by the ED officials on Tuesday afternoon, during which the ED counsel gave details of the alleged money-laundering transactions linked to the restaurant of the former minister.
The ED council informed the court that the said restaurant showed an income of Rs 1.11 crore during the Covid-19 lockdown, when the entity remained closed totally, and none of its employees was in service during that period.
The ED counsel also informed the court that, besides Rs 1.1 crore transferred to the said restaurant, another amount of Rs 2.2 crore was transferred to the personal account of Bose.
The ED further submitted that investigators had unearthed multiple financial transactions involving Bose with individuals where the transfers lacked any legal basis.
The agency also informed the court that it had found evidence of at least 150 illegal recruitments in the Uttar Dum Dum Municipality in the North 24 Parganas district, allegedly carried out on Bose’s recommendation.
The ED counsel sought 10 days of remand of Bose to interrogate him. The court order is yet to be delivered.
Meanwhile, moving the bail plea, Bose’s counsel informed the court that the documents based on which ED had arrested his client were available with the investigating officers of the central agency between 2022 and 2023.
Bose’s counsel questioned the justification of the arrest based on documents available three to four years back. He also claimed that even the earlier charge sheet presented by ED in the matter did not have his client’s name as the accused.
Bose, a three-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Bidhannagar assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, was defeated this time.
ED officials had first received information about the multi-crore municipalities’ job case while conducting raids and search operations at the residence of Trinamool Congress-linked promoter Ayan Shil in connection with another money laundering case related to the cash-for-school jobs scam in West Bengal.
Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation had also started a parallel probe into the municipalities’ job case following an order of the Calcutta High Court.
As officials of the two central agencies progressed further with the investigation, the names of several politically influential persons, including state ministers and ruling party leaders, surfaced.
(IANS)
