CBI raids West Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak's 3 houses in coal scam case

A team of CBI officials on Wednesday raided the three houses of West Bengal law minister Moloy Ghatak at Asansol in connection with the coal smuggling case.

Raids are being conducted in seven places across the state, including Asansol and Kolkata.

Moloy Ghatak has earlier been questioned in connection with the case by ED. Today's raid comes at a time when several Trinamool leaders, including the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, are on the radar of the central agencies.

While sacked minister Partha Chatterjee is in jail in connection with the SSC scam, Anubrata Mondal was arrested by the CBI in the cattle smuggling case.

On Tuesday, Moloy Ghatak tweeted against Union home minister Amit Shah and said the country's state of affairs is horrifying "under the watch of Mr Amit Shah."

Coal scam is the same case in which Abhishek Banerjee has been questioned by the ED several times.

The CBI registered the coal smuggling case in November 2020. It is alleged that the illegally mined coal, worth thousands of crores of rupees, was sold by a racket operating in the western parts of West Bengal, where the Eastern Coalfields Limited runs several mines. It is alleged that proceeds from the coal trade went to political leaders.

The ED filed its first chargesheet in the coal smuggling case at a special court in Delhi in August last year, naming Vinay Mishra's brother, Vikas, and former officer-in-charge of Bankura police station, Ashok Mishra, as prime accused.

The chargesheet did not mention Abhishek Banerjee. Eight Indian Police Service (IPS) officers posted in West Bengal were recently summoned to Delhi by the ED for questioning.