Cattle, coal smuggling case: CBI raids several premises
Kolkata: Several teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted raids at the residences of a businessman at three different locations in and around Kolkata for his alleged involvement in cattle and coal smuggling cases.
Another CBI team parallely conducted raids at the houses of two more businessmen brothers at Konnagar in Hooghly in coal and cattle smuggling racket.
The Kolkata based businessmen Vinay Mishra, against whom look-out notice has been issued, was at large when three teams comprising senior CBI officers, accompanied by CRPF personnel, conducted raids at his Rashbehari, Chetla and Lake Town residences at a time.
Though he did not turn up against CBI's previous summons, he has been once again summoned for interrogation at 11 am on Monday. Against the search warrant, issued against him for not turning up for questioning, the investigating officers continued with search at his Chetla and Lake Town residences for around five hours since early morning, and till evening at his Rashbehari residence from where hard discs containing footages of house's CCTV cameras was seized.
The CBI's raid also gained political development with Trinamool Congress raising allegations that NDA partnered with Central investigating agencies after their ties with some of its allied political parties had severed. The party spokesperson Debu Tudu said: "Five political parties who were partners of NDA including Shiromani Akali Dal, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party have left the alliance. Hence BJP has made a new alliance with CBI and ED to scare leaders of the opposition parties."
In a tweet, BJP national secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed that the raid is leading to uneasiness of the state's rulling party.
Mishra's name surfaced following interrogation of Enamul Haque, who was arrested by the CBI in a cattle smuggling case. The CBI's counsel Rakesh Singh has placed a dairy (wrapped in a green paper) before the Asansol Special CBI Court claiming that it contains the name of those to whom and how much cash was given for being involved in cattle smuggling case. Income tax officers also conducted raids at Mishra's office last week.
The CBI officers also conducted raids at the houses of businessmen– Niraj Singh and Amit Singh – at Kanaipur's Sashtinagar situated in the western side of Konnagar Station in Hooghly for their alleged involvement in coal smuggling though they basically run business of garment trade. The duo was not found at their houses during the raid.
