Kolkata, April 17 The Income Tax (I-T) Department officials on Friday started raid and search operations at the residence of Miraj Shah, one of the four proposers for the nomination of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the Trinamool Congress candidate from the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in Kolkata in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
In her nomination from Bhabanipur this time, Mamata Banerjee chose four proposers from four linguistic backgrounds, keeping the cosmopolitan nature of the Assembly constituency in mind.
One of them was Miraj Shah, who represented the Gujarati fraternity.
The other three proposers were Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim's wife, Ismat Hakim (representing the Muslims), actress-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Koel Mallick's husband Nishpal Singh Rane (representing the Punjabis), and the local Trinamool Congress block President, Bablu Singh (representing the Biharis).
On Friday afternoon, a team of Income Tax officials, heavily escorted by the central armed police forces (personnel) reached the residence of Shah at Elgin Road in Kolkata.
Miraj Shah is the trustee board member of Bhabanipur Education Society College, also located at Elgin Road, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency. He is also known as a politically influential person in his locality.
Sources aware of the development said that the raid and search operations in relation to the same illegal-land grabbing-related money laundering case, for which parallel raid by the Income Tax officials are continuing since Friday morning at the residence and the electoral camp office of veteran Trinamool Congress legislator and Member-Mayor-in-Council of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Debasish Kumar. All these locations are in South Kolkata.
At the same time, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials are also conducting raids and search operations at several locations in and around Kolkata in relation to the same case, including the offices of a real estate company and the residence of a chartered accountant.
Meanwhile, a political slugfest had surfaced over the simultaneous raid and search operations, with Trinamool Congress describing the development as a reflection of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s vendetta politics.
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