New Delhi, March 11 – The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached Rs. 10.29 crore of the Trinamool Congress in the form of a Demand Draft (DD) tendered by it, during the investigation into the offence of money laundering by the Alchemist Group and others.
Kanwar Deep Singh, Trinamool Congress’ ex-MP, Rajya Sabha, headed the Alchemist Group.
According to the financial probe agency, they had initiated an investigation on the basis of the FIRs registered by the CBI, Lucknow, Kolkata Police and Uttar Pradesh Police under sections of the IPC against various individuals and companies of the Alchemist Group.
“The ED’s investigation revealed that the Alchemist Group collected funds amounting to more than Rs. 1,800 crore from investors/victims in its companies namely, Alchemist Holdings Limited and Alchemist Township India Limited on the false promise of providing high returns and giving flats/villas/plots/high rate of interest on the investments to the public/investors/victims,” said the ED in a statement.
However, the investors were never returned their money and the funds were diverted to various group companies of the Alchemist Group.
The probe also further revealed that a part of the money collected by cheating the public was used by the Alchemist Group for making payments to aviation companies on behalf of the Trinamool Congress.
“The ED’s investigation also revealed that an amount of Rs. 10.29 crore was paid by Alchemist Airways Pvt Ltd to various aviation/helicopter companies for the aviation services availed by Trinamool Congress party during the campaigning for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections for its star campaigners like Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy, Munmun Sen, Nusrat Jahan, MP, TMC etc,” it said.
ssh/rad
