Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned West Bengal Power Minister and Trinamool Congress Treasurer Aroop Biswas for questioning at the agency’s headquarters in Delhi in connection with the funding received by the party during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from chit-fund entity Alchemist Group.
Biswas, who also holds the sports & youth affairs and housing portfolios, has been asked to be present at the ED’s office in Delhi on Friday morning, sources said.
Biswas is the second heavyweight Trinamool leader to receive ED summons in connection with the case after turncoat legislator Mukul Roy.
Meanwhile, Trinamool insiders said that Biswas has sent a reply to the ED seeking more time to appear before the agency for integration.
Trinamool spokesman Kunal Ghosh, however, claimed that the notice to the minister is yet another example of how the BJP is using the central agencies against the opposition leaders before the Lok Sabha polls.
Ghosh also asked why the ED is not questioning actor-turned-BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty in connection with the case.
Former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member and the founder of Alchemist Infra Realty Limited, K.D. Singh, was arrested by the ED in January 2021.
The main charge against the entity is that it raised over Rs 1,900 crore from the market without the necessary approval from the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The ED has already confiscated properties worth Rs 238 crore belonging to the Alchemist Group.
–IANS