This is the second raid conducted against I-PAC by the ED after January
Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted fresh searches at over 10 office premises of the political consultancy firm I-PAC in four states, including Telangana, in connection with an alleged coal “scam” of West Bengal, officials said.
According to ED, the raids are being undertaken at locations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi, including the premises of I-PAC co-founder and director Rishi Raj Singh in Bengaluru and that of Nair in Mumbai. This is the second raid conducted against I-PAC by the ED after January.
According to the officials, the raids are being carried out across the country based on a First Information Report filed by CBI in November 2020 on an alleged multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.
The agency had said in a statement that a hawala operator linked to this alleged coal smuggling ring had facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to Indian PAC Consulting Pvt. Ltd., the registered company of I-PAC. “IPAC is also one of the entities linked to Hawala money,” the ED had alleged.
The anti-money laundering agency claimed earlier that about Rs 20 crore of Hawala funds, generated from alleged coal pilferage in West Bengal, found its way to I-PAC. The organisation has been providing political consultancy to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the West Bengal government since 2021.
ED officials said these `20 crore worth “hawala” funds were moved by a Mumbai-based 'Angadiya' firm that got into the cross hairs of the agency during its probe into the Delhi liquor “scam” case involving the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
It was alleged by the agency that `45 crore kickbacks generated from the Delhi excise policy “scam” were moved by the AAP for its 2022 Goa assembly election campaign. The agency claimed Jain “handled” I-PAC operations in Goa.
