MHA seeks report from Bengal govt on attacks on ED teams

The Union home ministry has sought a report from the West Bengal government on attacks on Enforcement Directorate teams in the state on January 5, sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

In a communication, the ministry of home affairs has asked the West Bengal government to send a detailed report on the circumstances leading to the attacks that left ED officials injured.

The home ministry also asked the state government to send details of the action taken following the attacks on the central probe agency teams, the sources said.

Three ED officials were injured and their mobile phones, laptops and wallets 'looted' when they went to Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district to search the premises of Shajahan Sheikh, a leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state, on January 5.

Sheikh is absconding and the ED has issued a look-out circular against him, alerting all land, air and sea ports to stop his exit from the country.

A second agency team was attacked and their vehicle was damaged during the arrest of another TMC leader, Shankar Adhya, in Bongaon of the said district on the same day.

Acting director of the ED Rahul Navin visited West Bengal on Tuesday to take stock of the situation following the attacks on the agency officials.

Navin will review the probe into the alleged public distribution and paddy procurement scam in West Bengal and discuss security concerns of the local ED establishment in the backdrop of the attacks on the agency officials, the sources said.

He might also call on Governor CV Ananda Bose at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.

The ED had claimed in a press statement that the magnitude of the "scam" was "enormous" and the proceeds of the crime transferred by a suspect amounted to Rs 9,000-10,000 crore, of which an amount of Rs 2,000 crore was "suspected to be transferred to Dubai either directly or through Bangladesh".

It arrested West Bengal minister and TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick and his aide Bakibur Rahaman in connection with the case last year while Adhya was held last week.

A money-laundering chargesheet against Mallick, Rahaman and NPG Rice Mill was filed by the agency before a Kolkata court in December last year.