Kolkata: The Law Enforcement (ED) Directorate on Thursday issued a summons to eight Indian Police Service (IPS) West Bengal officers to appear outside its Delhi headquarters for questioning in connection with the coal smuggling scam.
Of the eight IPS officers who are summoned between 21 and 31 August, two are additional directors, namely the ADG of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Police Special Task Force (STF). of State, Gyanwant Singh and the ADG of the State Intelligence Branch. (IB), Rajeev Mishra.
Two of them are Assistant Inspectors, namely the State Police DIG (Traffic Division), Sukesh Kumar Jain and the State Civil Defense DIG, Shyam Singh.
The other four are senior officers, namely SP (Purulia) S Selvamurugan, SP of State Anti-Corruption Branch Koteshwara Rao, SP of West Bengal Police Recruitment Board (WBPRB), Tathagata Basu and State Counter-Insurgency Force SP, Bhaskar Mukherjee
ED sources said they had specific clues to the direct or indirect involvement of all of these officers when coal smuggling was at its height and central agency detectives would like to ask them about how this threat could happen while they were in office.
The ED and CBI, which are conducting parallel investigations, have identified Asansol in West Burdwan district and parts of Purulia district as the epicenter of the scam.
“We have already interviewed lower level cops like sub-inspectors, inspectors and assistant superintendents of police in this regard. But now we are going to interview higher level officials to get more clues during our investigation,” an ED official said.
The ED has already interviewed Trinamool National Congress General Secretary and party MP Abhishek Banerjee, who also happens to be the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as well as his wife Rujira in connection with the case.
A Thailand-based bank account allegedly held by Rujira is currently under ED scanner.
