ED raids home of senior Kolkata police officer in alleged ‘money laundering scam’

Kolkata/New Delhi: law enforcement bureau (ED) The residence of Kolkata Police DCP (Special Branch) Shantanu Sinha Biswas was raided on Sunday and city businessman Joy Kamdar was arrested in a money laundering probe related to alleged illegal land deals and extortion. The ED action comes days after IT raids were conducted at the homes of TMC candidates Debashis Kumar and Miraj Shah, one of the sponsors of CM Mamata Banerjee’s nomination from Bhowanipur constituency, during the Bengal poll season. “The house of the person who is looking after my safety has also been attacked since this morning. Do you want to kill me? They are attacking us every day. We will register a case in every incident,” Mamata said at a rally in Talakeshwar on Sunday. Kamdar, who is the managing director of several companies mainly engaged in real estate business, was detained after being questioned at the ED office. A search was conducted at his Behara residence; ED claimed to have recovered Rs 1.20 lakh in cash. Earlier, he had twice skipped emergency room summonses. Emergency room detectives also searched the home of DCP Biswas in Ballygunge. He is the former head constable of Kalighat police station and was not present at the time. His lawyer called the attack “unexpected.” The investigation stems from alleged illegal land deals and extortion by a criminal syndicate led by historian Biswajit Podder, also known as Sona Pappu. ED said that during a recent raid, a Toyota Fortuner and a US-made revolver were seized. ED sources said illicit funds flowed into legal channels through shell companies and front companies.