ED conducts raids in illigal coal mining in West Bengal

New Delhi, Jan 11 (HS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday carried out raids at 12 locations across West Bengal in connection with illegal coal mining from coal firm Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL).

The places where the raids were conducted included Kolkata’s Lake Town area, Garia, Konnagar’s Kanaipur in Hooghly district and North 24 Parganas in connection with the illegal trading of coal.

According to sources in ED, the raids were conducted at offices and residential addresses of businessmen Ganesh Bagadia and Sanjay Singh.

The duo Bagadia and Singh are believed to be linked with illegal coal racket kingpin Anup Majhi, alias Lala, who is allegedly running the syndicate in connivance with Binay Mishra.

The sleuths had raided the offices and homes of Majhi in Asansol, Durgapur, and Raniganj in Burdwan district, as well as at Bishnupur in Kolkata’s adjoining South 24-Parganas district.

They had also carried out search operations in some of the houses of Majhi’s associates. Majhi is the alleged kingpin of the illegal coal operation that was running in the open cast colliery belts along the Bengal-Jharkhand border.