Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Monday, issued summons to the Trinamool Congress legislator from Rashbehari Assembly Constituency in South Kolkata and a Member-Mayor-in-Council (MMIC) of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (MMIC), Debasish Kumar, in connection with an illegal land grabbing case in West Bengal.
At the time the report was filed, Kumar had already arrived at ED’s office at the central government office (CGO) complex at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of Kolkata to face the interrogation.
Kumar has been re-nominated from the Rashbehari Assembly Constituency this time also.
Sources aware of the development said that on March 28, the ED officials conducted searches in Kolkata and some adjacent areas in connection with a land-grabbing case. On that day, searches were also conducted at the office of an organisation in the city and the homes of officials associated with it. Sources said the search operations were in relation to an illegal land-grabbing case.
There are charges against the said organisation of duping investors by making them invest their money in schemes promising hefty returns. During the course of the investigation, the name of Kumar surfaced, and based on their findings, the investigating officials of ED summoned him.
It is learnt that the ED started its investigation into the matter based on around 17 FIRs registered against the organisation in different police stations in West Bengal. During the course of raid and search operations on March 28, the ED officials examined the books of accounts of the said organisation and also questioned its directors and senior officials.
Sources said that during the course of investigation and interrogation, Kumar’s name surfaced, and investigating officials decided to question him in the matter.
Trinamool Congress leadership had claimed that before the two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal next month, the Union government had unleashed the central investigating agencies once again to harass the party leader and candidates, and the summons to Kumar was an example.
State leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, claimed that since the investigation into the matter by ED was because of a court order, there was no question of the Union government or the BJP having any hand in the development.
(IANS)
