Centre Seeks Report From Bengal On Attack On Probe Agency Team

New Delhi:

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday sought a “detailed report” from the West Bengal government over attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) teams.

The development comes a day after the state government registered an FIR against ED officials for trespassing.

NDTV has learnt that in a written communication, the MHA has asked the West Bengal government to send a report on the circumstances leading to the attacks that left the central probe agency officials injured.

“State government has also been asked to send details of the action taken following the attacks on the central probe agency teams,” a senior official told NDTV.

The fact that cases have been registered against ED teams were taken note of by the Ministry, he added.

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 (TMC) in the state, on January 5.

Sheikh is absconding and the the agency, which probes financial crimes, has issued a look-out circular (LC) 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 damaged during the arrest of another Trinamool leader, Shankar Adhya, in Bongaon of the said district on the same day.

Rahul Navin, acting director of the probe agency, visited the state on Tuesday to take stock of the situation following the attacks on the agency officials.

Mr Navin will review the probe into the alleged public distribution and paddy procurement scam in 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 C V 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 Trinamool 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.