Coal Mafia Crackdown: Stacks Of Notes & Gold Seized As ED Raids Over 40 Locations In Jharkhand, Bengal

New Delhi: In a sweeping crackdown on the coal mafia network, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out simultaneous raids at over 40 locations across Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Both the Ranchi zone and the Kolkata zone offices of the ED launched these raids separately since early Friday based on specific inputs against these coal mafias. The locations being raided include residences, offices and other places linked to the suspects.

These searches are underway in close coordination with the state police forces of Jharkhand and West Bengal.

“It is a coordinated action at more than 40 premises against coal mafias in Jharkhand and West Bengal,” the officials told ANI, requesting anonymity.

ED’s Ranchi zonal office is conducting search operations “across 18 locations in Jharkhand, which pertain to several major cases of coal theft and smuggling, covering the matters of some individuals identified as Anil Goyal, Sanjay Udhyog, LB Singh, and Amar Mandal," they added.

“The collective scale of the cases involves significant coal pilferage and theft, resulting in a massive financial loss to the government estimated to be hundreds of crores,” said the officials.

Premises related to Narendra Kharka, Anil Goyal, Yudhistir Ghosh, Krishna Murari Kayal and others are being covered in the operation.

However, ED’s Kolkata zonal office is conducting searches at 24 premises in Durgapur, Purulia, Howrah and Kolkata districts in West Bengal in connection with the illegal coal mining, illegal transportation and storage of coal case.

Stacks of notes in 500, 200 and 100 denominations were recovered from the sites in both the states. 

Several gold jewellery were also seized from the raided locations in West Bengal.

(With ANI inputs)

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