New Delhi: In a major action weeks ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Vinesh Chandel, a director and co-founder of political consultancy firm I-PAC, in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in the poll-bound state.
An official said Chandel was taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Delhi late evening.
He is expected to be produced before a special court tonight, where the ED will seek Chandel’s custodial remand for questioning.
According to the ED, a “hawala” operator associated with the alleged coal-smuggling network facilitated transactions worth tens of crores to Indian PAC Consulting Private Limited, the registered entity of I-PAC. The agency further alleged that I-PAC was among the entities connected to these hawala funds.
Earlier, the ED had claimed that nearly Rs 20 crore generated from alleged coal pilferage in West Bengal was routed to I-PAC.
In January, the Supreme Court stayed the FIRs registered by the West Bengal Police against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the recent searches at the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its co-founder, Pratik Jain, in Kolkata.
The Apex Court observed that the petitions raise serious questions of alleged interference by state agencies in a central investigation.
A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul Pancholi issued notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner and others on the ED’s pleas alleging obstruction during the search operations conducted last week. The Bench granted two weeks to the respondents to file their counter-affidavits, listing the matter for further hearing on the 3rd of next month.
