ED raids on company where TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee is CEO
Raid at Leaps and Bounds part of probe into West Bengal teachers' recruitment scam
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday (August 23) said it seized "incriminating" documents after it raided multiple premises of a company in Kolkata whose CEO is Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The searches were undertaken on August 21-22 at three premises of the company, Leaps and Bounds Pvt. Ltd., as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into the West Bengal teachers' recruitment 'scam'.
The federal probe agency said in a statement that the action was undertaken against arrested accused in this case, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, who was the chief operating officer (COO) of the company.
The company, it alleged, was "used for making dubious transactions running into crores of rupees." Bhadra was also been a director in this company from April, 2012-March, 2016 while Abhishek Banerjee is the chief executive officer (CEO) and was also a director in the company from April, 2012-January, 2014, the ED said.
During the search operations, the ED said, "various incriminating documents and digital evidence were recovered and seized." Abhishek Banerjee, 35, has always denied wrongdoing and had called the ED action borne out of political vendetta.
Bhadra was arrested by the ED in May as part of this probe.
It had also arrested former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, his alleged aide Arpita Mukherjee, TMC MLA and the ex-president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya, TMC youth wing leaders Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee, Ayan Sil in this case where it has filed a total of five charge sheets under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Partha Chatterjee was also suspended by the TMC after his arrest by the ED.
Assets worth more than Rs 126 crore have been attached in this case till now.
(With agency inputs)
