• ED searches at 7 locations linked to TMC MP Nadimul
    Times of India | 8 September 2026
  • Kolkata: Enforcement Directorate on Monday searched seven locations in Delhi, Kolkata and Ranchi linked to Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Md Nadimul Haque over alleged financial irregularities involving a publication house run by him.

    The probe was initiated under an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) following an FIR registered by Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, relating to alleged illegal cash transactions and unaccounted funds from suspicious sources.

    Haque, 56, a journalist and businessman, is director of Akhbar-E-Mashriq Private Limited, which publishes eastern India’s prominent Urdu daily Akhbar-E-Mashriq.

    “A team from Delhi is conducting searches at the MP’s residences in New Delhi and several other locations, including a premise in Kolkata linked to him,” an ED official said.

    ED sources said investigators were tracking cryptocurrency trails, including more than 300 high-value bitcoin transactions, and possible links between Haque’s companies and banks in Dubai.

    The agency is also examining whether govt funds linked to an advertising agency were routed through accounts associated with Haque and allegedly transferred to West Asian banks outside formal channels.

    In Kolkata, searches were conducted at the newspaper office and a relative’s house, while another relative’s residence was searched in New Delhi. ED also searched Haque’s official residence at 61, South Avenue, which serves as TMC’s Delhi operational office.

    The party had shifted its Delhi operations there in June from the residence of MP Partha Bhowmick, who moved to new quarters after his name figured among 20 rebel signatories aligned with NCPI.

    Haque could not be reached as he was in Ranchi for a parliamentary committee meeting. His office informed committee chairperson M Thambidurai about the searches.

    TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien called the raids politically motivated, alleging BJP was trying to divert attention from a Delhi building collapse that killed students.

    Calling the action “systematic targeting of media”, O’Brien alleged it was an attempt by BJP and its agencies to “curtail media voices”, noting that Haque runs eastern India’s biggest Urdu newspaper.
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