Coal scam case:CBI raids 3 houses of West Bengal law minister

CBI officials on Wednesday raided the three houses of West Bengal law minister Moloy Ghatak at Asansol in connection with the coal smuggling case. Raids are being conducted in seven places across the state, including Asansol and Kolkata. Moloy Ghatak has earlier been questioned in connection with the case by ED. Today's raid comes at a time when several Trinamool leaders, including the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, are on the radar of the central agencies.On September 20, 2012 the CBI had registered a case in the matter under section - 120B r/w 420 IPC r/w 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. After the completion of the investigation, a chargesheet was filed against Grace Industries Limited and Mukesh Gupta, director of the company in the court on October 28, 2014. The Court on August 10, 2015, took cognizance of the offence and issued summons to the accused persons for their appearance before the Court. During the course of trial, a total of 34 witnesses had been examined by the prosecution/CBI to prove its case.
While sacked minister Partha Chatterjee is in jail in connection with the SSC scam, Anubrata Mondal was arrested by the CBI in the cattle smuggling case. The CBI registered the coal smuggling case in November 2020. It is alleged that the illegally mined coal, worth thousands of crores of rupees, was sold by a racket operating in the western parts of West Bengal, where the Eastern Coalfields Limited runs several mines. It is alleged that proceeds from the coal trade went to political leaders.