Kolkata, Oct 23
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was, on Monday, conducting massive raid and search operations in at least 14 locations in West Bengal in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case.
Sources said most of the places where the different teams of ED officials were conducting raids and search operations are concentrated in Kolkata and the adjacent district of Howrah.
Each team of ED officials was escorted by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel.
The raid started with the two residences of a businessman, Mahendra Agarwal at Bangur Avenue in South Kolkata. Besides conducting raid and search operations there, the ED officials are also interrogating the said businessman.
The second place where the raid and search operations were conducted was the residence and warehouse of a public distribution system (PDS) dealer Loknath Saha at Panchla in Kolkata adjacent to Howrah district.
The other places where the ED officials are conducting raid and search operations, sources said, are mainly the residences and shops of different PDS dealers who have been under the scanner of the ED for quite some time in connection with the ration distribution case.
To recall in the last week of September, the ED submitted a supplementary charge sheet at a special court in Kolkata, which included eight new names. Of the eight names included in the supplementary charge sheet, two were Trinamool Congress leaders from Deganga in North 24 Parganas district, Anisur Rahaman and his brother Alif Nur a.k.a Mukul Rahaman, a businessman.