The enforcement directorate has summoned IAS officer R.P.S. Kahlon and his wife, an Australian national, in connection with a money laundering case.
A source in the central agency claimed they had evidence to suggest Kahlon (now out on bail in a bribery case) and his wife laundered crores from India to Australia over the past five years.
Kahlon did not respond to calls or text messages sent to his cell phone on Thursday evening.
Earlier in the afternoon, enforcement directorate officers raided seven places in the city, including the house and offices of a chartered accountant.
"The chartered accountant had floated four fictitious companies through which he would siphon off the money abroad," said an enforcement directorate officer posted in Delhi.
Officers raided the accountant's Salt Lake home and his offices in Everest House on JL Nehru Road in search of documents, the source said.
Another team visited Kahlon's Port Lane Park residence in Alipore to question him and his wife.
An officer said the Kahlons have been served with a notice asking them to appear at the enforcement directorate's office in the CGO complex in Salt Lake on Friday.
The chartered accountant was taken to the agency's office on Thursday and questioned for more than three hours, the source said.
The central agency received a tip-off about the money laundering from the Australian Federal Police a few months ago.
The money trail led the investigators to Kahlon and others, the source said.
A source in the internal security unit functioning under the Union home ministry said the Australian Federal Police had a meeting with representatives of the enforcement directorate last year in Australia.
Kahlon and several other bureaucrats came under the scanner, he said.
But the case against Kahlon started only after Calcutta police picked him up on the charge of taking Rs 20 lakh as bribe from a container terminal advisor.
The former Calcutta port trust chairman spent more than a month in police and jail custody in the corruption case started against him by the city police. He was granted bail on April 11.
Kahlon, 58, a Bengal cadre IAS officer of the 1985 batch, has served in key positions in the state government, including as transport secretary, environment secretary and labour commissioner.
