The Enforcement Directorate arrested Vinesh Chandel, a director of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), on Monday in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged coal pilferage case.
Chandel was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Delhi after being questioned by the central agency earlier in the day. A special court later sent him to ten days of ED custody.
The arrest comes just days before the West Bengal Assembly elections. I-PAC is a political consultancy firm which is currently assisting the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the upcoming Assembly elections. The firm has been providing services to the TMC government since 2021.
The ED had conducted searches on April 2 at multiple locations, including the residences of Chandel and other senior officials of I-PAC in Bengaluru and in Mumbai.
This followed a previous raid on January 8, when ED officials searched the residence and office of I-PAC director Pratik Jain in Kolkata. The raid sparked a political uproar when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stormed into the premises and allegedly took away digital devices and documents while the search was underway.
Banerjee lashed out at the BJP-led Centre and termed the searches a conspiracy by the saffron party to unsettle the ruling TMC’s strategies and interfere with the democratic process of elections.
The coal smuggling scam dates back to November 2020, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR on the basis of information regarding a multi-crore coal pilferage scam by Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) in West Bengal.
I-PAC was allegedly the beneficiary of Rs 20 crores routed through hawala to the political consultancy’s sister concern.