NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate is in overdrive in Bengal ahead of assembly polls with intensified actions since April 1 in at least 19 cases of money laundering, involving ministers, police brass and alleged key political conduits.The agency on Monday summoned Rishi Raj, one of the directors of I-PAC, the political consultancy engaged with TMC, while also summoning senior IAS officer Manish Jain, ex-principal secretary of state’s education department, for questioning in connection with SSC recruitment scam.Another director of I-PAC, Pratik Jainhas already been summoned multiple times, escalating the probe into affairs of the high-profile political consultancy. Vinesh Chandel, the other I-PAC director, is currently in ED’s custody.The intense scrutiny that I-PAC has been subjected to triggered speculation that the firm, crucial for TMC’s poll campaign, has suspended its operations, leading CM Mamata Banerjee to deny the same. TMC said the “baseless speculation” was meant to create confusion.On Sunday, ED searched the residence of Kolkata Police special branch DCP Shantanu Sinha Biswas, who is being probed in a case of alleged fake NRI quota admissions in private medical colleges in West Bengal.IAS officer Manish Jain’s questioning comes soon after raids were carried out on the premises of Partha Chatterjee, ex-minister and a close associate of Banerjee. Biswas, along with ex-Jhargram collector Sunil Agarwal, is already under probe in sand mining money laundering case and a coal mining “scam”. His close associate Jay S Kamdar was arrested on Sunday, after ED accused him of having links with gangster Sona Pappu and involvement in “cross border and domestic hawala transactions”.
