The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached a demand draft of ₹10.29 crore that the West Bengal-ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) party tendered during the investigation into the alleged offence of money laundering by Alchemist Group and others.

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The ED said on Monday that its probe revealed that an amount of ₹10.29 crore was paid by Alchemist Airways Pvt Ltd to various aviation companies for flying Trinamool Congress leaders like Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy, MPs Munmun Sen and Nusrat Jahan during the campaigning for 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.

The Alchemist group is headed by Kanwar Deep Singh, former Trinamool Congress member of Rajya Sabha. The attachment orders were passed by the Delhi Zonal office of the ED. The agency initiated investigation on the basis FIRs registered by CBI, Lucknow, Kolkata Police and UP Police under various sections of IPC, 1860 against various individuals and group companies of Alchemist Group.

The agency alleged that M/s Alchemist Group collected funds amounting to more than ₹1,800 crore from investors/victims in its companies namely, M/s Alchemist Holdings Limited and M/s Alchemist Township India Limited on the false promise of providing high returns and giving flats/villas/plots and high rate of interest on the investments to them.

However, the investors/public who never got their money and the funds, were siphoned off or diverted to various group companies of Alchemist Group, the ED alleged. According to the agency, a part of the money collected by cheating the public was allegedly used by Alchemist Group for making payments to aviation companies on behalf of the Trinamool Congress.

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