Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided multiple locations in poll-bound Jharkhand apart from West Bengal in a money laundering investigation linked to alleged illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals, official sources said.
A total of 17 places are being covered in the two neighbouring states by the Ranchi office of the federal probe agency, a day before the first phase of polling in Jharkhand.
Visuals of CRPF personnel positioned outside a hotel located on Bariatu Road in Ranchi and a resort in the city were captured by press teams as ED teams scoured for documents, ledger entries and financial records inside.
Searches are continuing, it said, as the agency attached pictures of these recoveries with the said post. The ECIR (enforcement case information report) filed by the federal agency under various sections of the PMLA stems from a Jharkhand Police FIR filed at the Bariyatu police station in the state capital Ranchi in June.
The police FIR, filed on the complaint of a Bangladeshi woman who allegedly infiltrated into the country from along the India-Bangladesh border with the help of touts to find work, has named around six women as accused who were arrested following a raid at a local resort.
The woman who filed the complaint escaped from a similar guest house and reached the police station. Police also recovered a “fake” Aadhaar card from one of these women.
Meanwhile, the ruling JMM slammed the BJP-led Centre for ED raids at several parts in Jharkhand, a day before the first phase of Assembly polls, alleging that the central agency’s action was an attempt to “help the saffron camp establish its Bangladeshi infiltration narrative”.