The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth ₹159.51 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with its probe into the alleged illegal mining and transportation of coal in Bengal, taking the total value of assets seized in the case to ₹482.22 crore.
Trinamool’s poll consultant I-PAC is also under investigation in this case.
The attachments were made in the case related to illegal coal mining and pilferage in the leasehold areas of Eastern Coalfields Ltd. According to the ED, a probe
has exposed a syndicate headed by Anup Majee alias Lala, which orchestrated the illicit operations.
The syndicate was allegedly engaged in illegal coal excavation and pilferage, and distributing the coal to factories in Bengal with the help of the local administration.
On Monday, after arresting I-PAC director Vinesh Chandel, the ED had said the political consultancy firm had raised bogus invoices to justify receiving funds from multiple third-party entities “without rendering any actual consultancy or professional services”.
Sources said I-PAC was allegedly involved in the laundering of funds worth ₹50 crore.
“Certain beneficiary companies in Bengal were found to have knowingly purchased illegally excavated coal in cash, thereby assisting in the concealment and projection of proceeds of crime as legitimate,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.
The attached assets include corporate bonds and alternative investment funds linked to Shyam Sel and Power Ltd and Shyam Ferro Alloys Ltd, entities under the Shyam Group controlled and managed by Sanjay Agarwal and Brij Bhushan Agarwal, the
ED said.
A key modus operandi involved the use of an illegal transport challan system known as the “Lala pad”, which functioned as a fake tax invoice issued in the name of non-existent entities, the agency said.
As part of the modus operandi, a ₹10 or ₹20 note was provided to the transporter along with the fake transport challan. The transporter would take a photograph of the currency note while holding it beside the number plate of the truck, dumper or tipper carrying the illegal coal and send the image to the operator of the coal syndicate.
“The operator would circulate the photograph through WhatsApp to police officials concerned and other government authorities along the route of the vehicle, ensuring that the truck was not intercepted or, if intercepted, was immediately released,” the agency said.
The probe, it said, has also uncovered the use of an underground hawala network for transferring proceeds of crime in cash, bypassing formal banking channels.
Transactions were authenticated using unique identifiers, typically the serial number of a currency note shared between sender and recipient. Upon verification
of the matching note, cash was handed over without any formal documentation, enabling seamless and untraceable movement of funds, the ED said.
“The offence involves multiple layers of complex financial transactions designed to conceal the origin and ownership of illicit funds,” it added.
The agency said its probe was focused on systematically unravelling these layers to identify ultimate beneficiaries, trace additional proceeds of crime and detect all
persons involved in the laundering process.
