ED raids AAP's Vijay Nair, I-PAC executive in West Bengal coal 'scam' case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted fresh searches against an executive of political consultancy firm I-PAC, former AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair and some others in connection with an alleged coal "scam" of West Bengal, officials said.

The raids are being undertaken at locations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The premises of I-PAC co-founder and director Rishi Raj Singh in Bengaluru and that of Nair in Mumbai are among those covered, they said.

The federal probe agency conducted raids in this case in January at the I-PAC office as well as at the Kolkata residence of its founder and one of the directors, Pratik Jain. Singh and Jain were recently summoned by the ED to record their statements.

They have approached the Delhi High Court to quash these notices issued to them, citing ongoing election work in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

The ED case stems from a November 2020 FIR of the CBI that alleged a multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas, in and around Asansol.

The agency had said in a statement that a hawala operator linked to this alleged coal smuggling ring had facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to Indian PAC Consulting Pvt. Ltd., the registered company of I-PAC.

"IPAC is also one of the entities linked to Hawala money," the ED had alleged.

The anti-money laundering agency claimed earlier that about Rs 20 crore of Hawala funds, generated from alleged coal pilferage in West Bengal, found its way to I-PAC.

The organisation has been providing political consultancy to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the West Bengal government since 2021.

ED officials said these Rs 20 crore worth "hawala" funds were moved by a Mumbai-based 'Angadiya' firm that got into the cross hairs of the agency during its probe into the Delhi liquor "scam" case involving the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

It was alleged by the agency that Rs 45 crore kickbacks generated from the Delhi excise policy "scam" were moved by the AAP for its 2022 Goa assembly election campaign.

The agency claimed Jain "handled" I-PAC operations in Goa.

A Delhi Court has recently discharged all the accused, including former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Nair, and 19 others, in the CBI-probed excise case.

The ED had claimed its searches against I-PAC and Jain in Kolkata were "obstructed" by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, claiming relevant documents and gadgets were forcibly taken away by her and the state administration.

It has sought a CBI probe into this "gross abuse of power" by the CM from the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing the case.