Economy

ED has become active in the state in the sand smuggling case before Diwali or Kali Puja. ED raids in several places in the state recorded today. ED officials raided the houses of several sand traders since thursday early morning.

 

Like other places, Central officials also raided the house of sand trader 'Manish Bagaria' in Murgashole under Dakshin police station in Asansol today. According to a sources it was learnt that the investigation team consists of around 40 members. Firstly, all the mobile phones of the family member including others present in the venue were confiscated. After that, the raids cum investigation operation began. The officers of the investigating agency were also accompanied by central para military armed jawans. The city of asansol this morning, was shocked due to sudden raids of Central agency in the local area around this ED operation. According to a sources it was learned that in addition to Asansol, the central investigative agency ED raided the homes and offices of several sand traders in Kolkata, Medinipur, Jhargram, and Birbhum today.

 

Asansol Chamber of Commerce Secretary Shambhunath Jha went to Sitaram Bagaria's house this morning after receiving the raid news. But he was not allowed to enter the businessman's house. He could not contact the businessman on phone. Later, Shambhunath said, "ED is conducting a raid at the house of Bagaria, a member of our Asansol Chamber of Commerce. But we don't know why this raid is taking place. We have not been able to contact anyone from the Bagaria family."

 

Incidentally, Om Bagaria, uncle of sand businessman Manish, is the president of the Asansol Chamber of Commerce. The Bagaria family, a resident of Asansol, has multiple businesses.

 

Through unoffical various sources it was learnt that Manish has been in the sand business for the last three years. He had few more partners. They run sand ghats in different districts of the West Bengal. They were acquired through government tenders. But besides this, it was alleged that they illegally extract sand from those ghats and smuggle it to different places and make huge profits. From which there are transactions worth in crores. A strong illegal syndicate associated with this sand business in the state. Money is sent to influential people through this syndicate to run this illegal sand business. In addition, a complaint has been filed against this Manish for evading GST by forging sand transport invoices. It was learnt that the ED has information that the money from sand smuggling was sent abroad through hawala transaction. It was believed that this is the reason for the central agency's raid on the house of this sand trader in Asansol.

 

After a raid that lasted for about 12 hours, the ED officials finally left the Bagariads' house at around 5:30 pm on thursday. They left with the four vehicles in which they had arrived at the businessman's house in Murgashole at 6 am this morning. However, ED officials did not wants to comments on the matter or informed what was foundin raid. The businessman's family members also did not respond on the issue.

 

Along with Asansol, the ED is also conducting raids at sand mines in around Kolkata, Jhargram, Gopiballavpur and Lalgarh and the office of a private company that runs this business this morning. Incidentally, on September 8, the ED had raided the house of sand trader Sourav Roy in Jhargram. In that raid, the ED had obtained several important documents. On that day too, the ED raided the office and house of the sand mine of Sourav Roy. It was learnt that today's raid was to verify the documents found in the previous raid. It was also learnt that the ED has also registered an FIR in this regard. ED sources said that the names of Sourav Roy, Manish Bagaria, one another businessman, and a chartered accountant were mentioned in it.