Kolkata, Jan 4 The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that it conducted raids at 17 locations in and around Kolkata on Wednesday in connection with the Ekbalpur-Mominpur clashes that took place on October 9 last year, and recovered huge cash from certain residences where the clashes broke out.
Although the exact amount of cash recovered is yet to be known, an amount of Rs 33 lakh were recovered from four residences at Bhukailash Road in the first two hours of raid conducted by the the NIA team, which was escorted by the central armed forces personnel.
It is further learnt that the NIA team, at certain places at Bhukailash Road and Mayurbhanj Road in the area, faced resistance from local people during their operations. People surrounded the vehicles of the investigating team and started agitating.
However, the escorting central armed forces personnel removed the agitators crowd, following which the NIA officials conducted their raids smoothly.
The clashes broke out on the occasion of Laxmi Puja and in the process of dispersing the violent mob, one officer in the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police was also injured. Police later detained 30 persons.
On October 19, the NIA took over the investigation in the matter from the special investigation team (SIT) of Kolkata police which was formed following a directive of a division bench of the Calcutta High Court.
On November 10, addressing an administrative review meeting in Nadia, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the NIA of fuelling communal tensions in the state.
"There are certain communal groups in Murshidabad who are troublemakers. The NIA then enters the scene to fuel tension further. All the public representatives in such communal pockets have to be careful that a small incident does not snowball into a major crisis. Whenever you hear of such incidents, you immediately intervene with the district and police administration and bring the situation under control," she said then.
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