The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday filed a charge sheet in connection with the sand smuggling case, within 60 days of the arrest of Arun Saraf and other accused.
The charge sheet was submitted before the ED’s special court at Bankshall against a total of 14 companies.
The central investigating agency has described the case as a massive financial scam, claiming that corruption worth Rs 145 crore has taken place. According to the ED, the money was siphoned off through multiple channels using GD Mining and 14 other associated companies.
Arun Saraf, the head of GD Mining, was arrested by the ED on 6 November, 2025. He has been accused of committing various financial irregularities. The agency alleges that Saraf earned huge profits by mining and selling sand while largely flouting the rules of the West Bengal Sand (Mining, Transport, Storage and Sale) Corporation Limited (WBMDTCL).
The ED further claimed that at least Rs 79 crore of government funds were misappropriated. Irregularities were also detected in the company’s bank accounts. During the financial year 2024-25, approximately Rs 130 crore was deposited in the company’s account, of which Rs 103 crore reportedly came from sand sales.
Apart from Arun Saraf’s firm, several other companies have also been charge sheeted in the case.
The investigators detailed the modus operandi of the illegal sand smuggling racket in the charge sheet. Officially, trucks transporting sand were required to operate using a specific licensed registration number. However, the ED alleged that the same registration number was used on multiple trucks and dumpers to illegally transport sand. Fake challans, or transport documents, were also widely used.
In many instances, the fraud initially went undetected by the administration, as trucks appeared to be operating with valid permissions. In reality, multiple vehicles were using the same registration number, facilitating large-scale corruption.
The investigation also revealed that the QR codes on sand mining permission letters were fake. The ED has included all these findings in the charge sheet filed after completion of the investigation.