ED frames charges against former TMC youth wing leader in bootlegging case | Latest India News

The Law Enforcement (ED) Directorate has filed an indictment against former Trinamool Congress youth wing leader Vinay Mishra, his brother Vikas Mishra and Mohammad Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of cattle smuggling racket across the India-Bangladesh border, people familiar with the development mentioned.

Besides the Mishras and Haque, the ED indictment, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a Delhi court on April 16, also names the same companies allegedly used to launder money from cattle smuggling. The racket involves several members of the Border Security Force (BSF), Customs Department officials, police officers, smugglers and West Bengal politicians.

ED Special Prosecutor Nitesh Rana on Monday asked the court to see the indictment while arguing that the defendants were involved in money laundering.

The Central Anti-Money Laundering Agency had arrested Haque on February 18 this year after several hours of questioning in Delhi while Vikas Mishra was arrested in March last year.

Vinay Mishra left India in 2020 and acquired citizenship of Vanuatu, a chain of 80 islands in the South Pacific. His lawyers informed the Calcutta High Court last year that he had renounced his Indian citizenship in November 2020 and the application was approved by the Indian Consulate General in Dubai.

A Kolkata-based businessman who was general secretary of the TMC’s youth wing, Vinay Mishra is a key defendant not only in the cattle smuggling case but also in an illegal coal mining scandal , being investigated by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The ED’s PMLA investigation into the cattle smuggling case is based on a CBI FIR filed in 2020, which alleges cattle seized by the BSF at the border were dumped and auctioned off with the help from some customs officers so that traders can buy them at very low prices. prices and resell them legally in Bangladesh. Some of the proceeds from the sale were reportedly given to certain TMC executives and government officials.

Three traders, Haque, Anarul SK and Mohammad Golam Mostafa, were part of the link, according to the FIR. Two BSF commanders – Satish Kumar and Jibu D Mathew – were also arrested in this case.

FIR says Haque used to pay ₹2,000 per head of cattle to BSF officials and ₹500 to the customs officers concerned. “Additionally, customs officers were receiving 10% of the auction price as a bribe from successful bidders like Enamul Haque, Golam Mostafa and Anarul SK, etc. “, says the report. Subsequently, BSF had to be paid ₹50 per head of cattle seized for food by the successful bidders.

The ED has so far identified proceeds of crime worth ₹418 crores in the cattle smuggling investigation. Assets worth ₹11.67 crore belonging to the defendant, including an apartment worth ₹5.25 crores in Delhi’s CR Park owned by Haque, was also tied up.

HT was unable to locate the legal representatives of the Mishras and Haques.

National TMC spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy declined to comment.