A number of locations in West Bengal and Jharkhand were raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday as part of a money laundering probe into the use of fictitious documents to sell defence land in the states.
The agency inspected many places in Kolkata, including those connected to the jailed businessman Amit Agarwal, as well as eight spots in Ranchi and other Jharkhand neighbourhoods.
Agarwal’s subordinates were reportedly also being questioned, according to an ED officer. He claimed that “two close colleagues of the businessman were questioned for more than an hour at Agarwal’s office in Nonapukur, in the south of Kolkata, to determine whether the businessman had any further property in West Bengal outside of the places that we have confiscated.
According to the government, ED teams searched numerous real estate brokers, individual people, and associated businesses. According to the CBI, many of Agrawal’s businesses were utilised to launder a significant portion of the illegal profits from a Jharkhand mining fraud involving Rs 1000 crore. Agarwal was detained by the ED last month for plotting to “trap” Rajeev Kumar, a lawyer who was defending a petitioner who was opposing Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.