The Enforcement Directorate carried out a marathon search operation lasting more than 24 hours at multiple locations connected to Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque, and officials said on Tuesday that the exercise has turned up discrepancies in financial transactions worth close to Rs 60 crore linked to an Urdu-language newspaper associated with him.
A search that stretched across three cities
The operation began early on Monday morning and continued right through to the early hours of Tuesday, according to officials. Teams entered the newspaper's office in the Park Circus area of Kolkata, along with a residence and other premises tied to Haque. The agency did not confine itself to Kolkata alone: seven more locations in Delhi and Ranchi were searched at the same time, indicating how widely the alleged money trail is believed to stretch.
Bank records and digital devices examined
An ED official said investigators went through bank transaction records, financial paperwork and digital material recovered from the premises during the search. The agency's stated aim is to piece together the complete chain of the disputed transactions and establish where the money genuinely originated from, rather than relying on the paper trail that was presented to it.
A hawala angle under the scanner
People aware of the probe said investigators are also trying to determine whether some of the funds being scrutinised moved through informal conduits such as hawala instead of the formal banking system. Establishing this would allow the agency to argue that the transactions were designed to obscure the identity of those actually sending or receiving the money.
Nearly Rs 60 crore worth of unexplained entries
Officials said the roughly Rs 60 crore in transactions flagged during the search were not immediately backed by satisfactory documentation when questions were raised on the spot. Investigators are now working to determine whether these dealings reflect genuine business activity linked to the newspaper's operations, or whether they were a mechanism to route money through channels that fall outside regular oversight.
MP questioned as raids unfolded
Beyond the searches, ED officials also questioned Haque in person at his residence and office in Kolkata. Officials said the MP was in Ranchi when the searches began on Monday and was subsequently brought to Kolkata later that night, where he was quizzed as the search of his home and office continued into the following day. Investigators are separately examining certain financial transactions said to be connected to the Trinamool Congress.
The case traces back to a Bidhannagar FIR
The current searches originate from an FIR registered at the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. Acting on that complaint, the central agency registered an Enforcement Case Information Report, its version of a first information report, to formally open the investigation. The case covers allegations of illegal and unaccounted financial dealings and the receipt of funds from sources the agency considers suspicious.
No arrests have been made in connection with the case so far. The ED said its focus for now remains on examining financial documents and digital records to establish the true nature of the transactions and trace the ultimate source of the funds involved.
