MP: ED raids Congress leader’s residence in Indore, arrested at airport

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Bhopal, Dec 16 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at Congress leader Vishal Agnihotri’s residence and office premises in Indore on Monday while arresting him from Indore airport.

The ED carried out searches in connection with an alleged betting scam which unfolded in June this year in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain.

Agnihotri, who is acting president of the Indore district Congress unit, was detained from Ahilyabai Airport in Indore when he was preparing to leave for Dubai.

He is said to be close to Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

When the ED team arrived at Agnihotri’s residence in the Chandan Nagar area in the city, they learnt that he had left for Dubai. However, the ED team along with local police arrested him at the Airport minutes before his departure.

The Congress leader was detained in connection with his alleged link with Piyush Chopra, a bookie who was arrested along with others during a raid in Ujjain in June.

Heavy police force and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were also been deployed outside Agnihotri’s residence, while ED sleuths carried out a search till late Monday evening.

Notably, on June 14, the state police busted a cricket betting nexus operating from Ujjain and arrested 10 people. During the operation, cash amounting to Rs 14.58 crore, 41 mobile phones, 19 laptops, and several national and international SIM cards were recovered.

The main accused Piyush Chopra was found in possession of 3,000 bundles of Rs 500 notes, 7 kilograms of silver, and foreign currency from seven different countries. Sources say the authorities had to use machines to count the seized cash, which took the entire night.

ED had also conducted raids at multiple locations, including Indore and Raisen two weeks ago. One of the businessmen, who was targeted for ED’s search, had in fact died by suicide along with his wife in the Sehore district.

–IANS

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Kolkata, Dec 20 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has identified a new angle of money laundering in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal where a major part of the proceeds was diverted and shown as donations to certain charitable trusts.

Sources aware of the development said that the ED has mentioned this new style of money laundering in its last and fifth supplementary charge sheet filed at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata recently.

One such trust named in the fifth supplementary charge sheet is the Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the deceased wife of former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, who has been behind bars since his arrest by the ED in the school-job case way back in July 2022.

In the previous charge sheet, Chatterjee’s son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya had also been shown as a co-accused of the former Education Minister in this game of fund diversion under the masquerade of donations.

Bhattacharya, who has settled abroad with his wife and Chatterjee’s daughter Sohini Chatterjee Bhattacharya, was also questioned by the ED as well as the officials of the Income Tax department in the matter.

However, his wife had not been shown as an accused in the case though she was the Chairperson of the trust. Besides the trusts, the ED in their subsequent charge sheets had named a number of shell corporate entities linked to Chatterjee and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee.

Chatterjee and Mukherjee were arrested in July 2022, after the ED officials seized huge amounts of cash and gold from her twin residences then. Mukherjee is currently out on bail.

In the last and fifth charge sheet, the ED had also named a corporate entity linked to another prime accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra and claimed that his entity also acted as a major channel of fund diversion.

In the charge sheet, the ED has included 29 new names of individuals and corporate entities

–IANS

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Punjab BJP Mahila Morcha concerned over atrocities against women in municipal polls

Chandigarh, Dec 16 (IANS) The Punjab’s BJP Mahila Morcha President Jai Inder Kaur on Monday condemned the atrocities committed against women candidates during the filing of nomination papers for the Municipal Corporation elections.

She has demanded the National Commission for Women (NCW) to immediately intervene and take action against these appalling incidents.

In a letter written to the NCW Chairperson, Jai Inder Kaur said: “The recent incidents of violence and harassment against women candidates in Punjab are deeply disturbing and unacceptable. It’s shocking to see how women were being targeted and intimidated, simply for exercising their right to participate in the democratic process.”

She further wrote: “As the President of BJP Mahila Morcha, Punjab, I strongly condemn these atrocities and demand immediate action from the National Commission for Women. It’s imperative that the NCW takes concrete steps to ensure women’s safety and dignity during elections.”

Jai Inder Kaur further highlighted: “The incidents in Patiala, where nomination papers of BJP women candidates were torn and women physically assaulted outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office, are particularly alarming. Visual evidence clearly implicates senior AAP leaders, MLA Chetan Singh Jouramajra and MLA Ajit Pal Kohli.”

She further requested: “I urge the NCW to constitute a fact-finding team to investigate these incidents, recommend legal action against perpetrators, and direct the Punjab Women Commission to fulfil its statutory duties. Women’s safety and empowerment are non-negotiable. We will continue to fight for justice and accountability.”

The elections to five Municipal Corporations and 41 Municipal Councils, besides Nagar Panchayats, will be held on December 21. The counting of votes will take place on the same day.

Out of the 37,32,636 registered voters, 19,55,888 are men, 17,76,544 are women and 204 others. The polling would be held from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the use of EVMs. The polled votes will be counted at the polling station itself.

–IANS

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