ED arrests 3 associates of suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh

PTI, Apr 15, 2024, 7:45 PM IST

Representative image (source: Pexels)

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday said it has arrested three associates of suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh as part of a probe into a money laundering case.

Shib Prasad Hazra, Sekh Alomgir and Didar Boksh Molla were taken into custody on April 12, the agency said.

In a related development, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata on Monday sent Sheikh to 14 days of judicial custody in another money laundering case.

Sheikh was arrested by the ED on March 30 in connection with a case of mob assault on the agency’s officials when they went to search his premises in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas on January 5 in relation to a money laundering case linked to alleged scam in PDS ration distribution in the state.

The latest money laundering investigation against Sheikh and his alleged associates stems from multiple FIRs registered by the West Bengal Police against them on charges of giving threats, murder, attempt to murder, extortion, land grabbing, etc.

Sheikh has been “running fisheries on illegally grabbed lands from tribals/farmers and has accrued proceeds of crime by sale of fish/shrimp from the grabbed lands in the name of his firm SK Sabina Fish Supplier and also from running various other businesses (including brick kilns)”, the ED claimed.

The cash generated from these criminal offences, the federal agency alleged, has been laundered through firms and companies like Magnum Export, etc.

Sheikh “acquired” a number of movable and immovable properties from the said proceeds of crime, it said.

Last month, the ED attached Sheikh’s assets worth Rs 12.78 crore.