Coal smuggling cases: Bank accounts of some police officers under scanner of central agencies

Kolkata, May 10 The bank accounts of some senior police officers in the state, from circle inspectors to district police superintendents, are currently under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the probe into the cattle and coal smuggling cases in the state.

Both the CBI and the ED are conducting parallel probes in this connection. It has been learnt that Bikash Mishra, one of the prime accused in the coal smuggling case, who is in CBI custody now, during interrogation named some police officers as beneficiaries of this illegal trade.

A highly placed CBI source, on condition of anonymity, said that Mishra has also given some back accounts details where the money had been transferred. "Since ED has better expertise in tracking the money trail, we have forwarded those details to their officers. They will examine transaction details in these bank accounts and based on their findings we might summon some police officers named by Mishra for questioning," the CBI source said.

The ED sleuths in April last year had arrested Ashok Mishra, an inspector-in-charge in Bankura directorate in this connection, who is believed to be close to Bikash Mishra's elder brother Binay Mishra, a Trinamool Congress youth leader and a prime accused in the coal smuggling case. Binay Mishra is currently absconding and staying in the Pacific Ocean island country of Vanuatu. A CBI court has already declared Binay Mishra absconding after he repeatedly avoided summons from the CBI. The CBI court has also ordered that the Trinamool leader should appear before the court on or before June 20.

It has been leant that the ED has already tracked information about huge amounts of assets of Ashok Mishra which is disproportionate to his income from declared sources.

On May 7, a court in New Delhi issued a bailable warrant against Rujira Banerjee, the wife of Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, after she failed to join the ED investigation despite summons issued by the central agency in a money laundering case related to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor