The Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed that it has seized more than a dozen assets totaling Rs 12.78 crore belonging to suspended TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh. These assets include bank deposits, an apartment, as well as agricultural and fishery land situated in Sandeshkhali and Kolkata, West Bengal.
The agency stated in a release that a provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these assets. A team of ED officials was attacked by a nearly 1,000-strong mob on January 5 when they went to raid Sheikh's house at Sandeshkhali in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
The individual in question purportedly maintains close ties with the apprehended former state food minister, Jyoti Priya Mallick, who is currently under investigation by federal agencies regarding a money laundering case associated with a multi-crore ration distribution scam in West Bengal.
Sheikh, identified as the strongman, was apprehended by the West Bengal Police on February 29 in connection with the ED assault case, following a 55-day period of being on the run. Subsequent to his arrest, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) suspended him from the party.
The money laundering case of the ED stems from a state police FIR that booked him and some others under various sections of the IPC, Arms Act, The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and West Bengal State Highways Act.
These charges include those registered for committing heinous offences in the nature of giving threats of injury, murder, attempt to murder, extortion, grabbing land of general public etc, the ED said. Proceeds of crime acquired by Shahjahan Sheikh by commission of criminal activities relating to scheduled offences as mentioned in above FIRs are being held, possessed, disguised and concealed by Shahjahan Sheikh in the form of various movable and immovable properties, it said.