ED summons Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak to Delhi in coal pilferage case

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday summoned West Bengal Law Minister Moloy Ghatak in connection with its probe into the coal pilferage case in the state, an officer of the central agency said.

Ghatak, the Asansol Uttar MLA of the TMC, was asked to appear before ED sleuths at their New Delhi office at 11 am on Friday, he said. The central agency also issued a summon to Sushanto Mahato, another legislator of the ruling party from Baghmundi in Purulia district, in connection with the coal pilferage case, the officer said.

”Mahato has also been summoned to ED’s Delhi office at 11 am on Friday,” he said.

Ghatak was earlier summoned by the central agency three times in connection with its investigation into the scam, and he had appeared before its sleuths once. ”We are trying to find out whether Ghatak and Mahato had any role in the coal scam,” the ED officer said. The agency had earlier interrogated Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira Narula Banerjee in connection with the scam.

The ED is probing into the money laundering aspect of the case, while another central agency CBI is also investigating the criminal angle of it. The ongoing probe is linked to an FIR filed by the CBI in 2020 in the multi-crore rupees pilferage scam.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has also questioned Rujira twice in connection with the case. It had last year interrogated Rujira’s sister Menoka Gambhir, her husband and father-in-law in connection with the probe.

It is alleged that illegal mining of coal was carried out at leasehold mines of Eastern Coalfields’ in Kunustoria and Kajora areas near Asansol in West Bengal. Investigations have hinted towards financial transactions of Rs 1,300 crore, the bulk of which went to several influential people, as per the CBI.