Kolkata: A hawala transaction of Rs 20 crore — key to ED's charges on IPAC — changed hands six times to remove any trail before reaching IPAC's Goa office from Kolkata. The chain of money transfer, which was unearthed by the Enforcement Directorate, bared open how ill-gotten money from coal smuggling allegedly reached political campaigns. These are the allegations levelled by the ED in its petition at the Calcutta High Court to claim that the proceeds of crime generated from coal sales were utilised by sending the money through both domestic and international hawala channels. According to ED, one such transaction reached IPAC during the elections in Goa in 2021-22.
During the probe, ED started tracing the trail from a former director of a New Delhi-based non-banking financial services firm. The official called up a person called Munna and requested him to transfer the money. Munna, in turn, got in touch with another person in the hawala racket. The money then came to the manager of a Kolkata-based hawala firm.
In his statement before the ED, the manager said that he arranged the cash in Goa during 2021-22, which was to be given to an employee of an event management company. The employee got in touch with the director of the company and a sister concern of the company. Both of these companies were managing events and campaigns for IPAC during the Goa election.
As per information, Pratik Jain, co-founder and director of IPAC, handled IPAC operations in Goa. Thus, search proceedings were started at 10 different premises in Delhi and Kolkata on Jan 8. Out of the said 10 premises, one was the residence of Jain at Loudon Mansion, ED said in petition.
ED said in its petition that the coal smuggling syndicate led by Anup Majee used to steal and illegally excavate coal from Eastern Coalfield premises in Bengal. Then, the coal was sold to various factories/plants in Bankura, Burdwan, Purulia, and other districts of Bengal. Payment allegedly used to be made in cash by factory owners. It was then collected by syndicate members. After the collection, the same used to be deposited in the Bhamuria office of the syndicate run by Majee, ED claimed.