KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday searched 15 premises linked to Indranil Sen, former West Bengal minister of state for information and cultural affairs in the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee cabinet, and others as part of an alleged money laundering investigation involving around Rs 50 crore to Rs 60 crore, officials said.
The searches were conducted in connection with alleged financial irregularities involving massArt (Mahanirban Road Mass Art Society), an organisation that hosted Durga Puja preview shows, they said on condition of anonymity.
According to the ED, massArt, which is headed by Sen's wife, allegedly collected substantial amounts from the public by falsely claiming that the funds were being raised for a UNESCO-sponsored entity.
The agency suspects that the money was subsequently diverted for personal gain, officials said. The searches were carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
An ED team has carried out a search operation at Indranil’s Kasba residence since this morning. Other teams of the central investigating agency have also conducted simultaneous raids separately at several other places, including Hindustan Park and Highland Park, in the city.
Sources said that the search operation was conducted at a Highland Park residential building owned by an event management businessman.
An ED team has also reached the resort-cum-bungalow owned by Indranil in the Singur area in Hooghly district and started a search operation there. A response from Sen or massArt on the ED action was not immediately available.
The central investigating agency was prompted to carry out searches following a complaint lodged against the former minister’s wife, Madhuchhanda Sen, and her organisation with the Bowbazar police station in June.
It was alleged that the organisation was formed within about six months after the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata got UNESCO recognition in 2021, when Mamata Banerjee came to power again in West Bengal for the third time. The organisation claimed itself as an ‘official partner’ of UNESCO.
It was also alleged that the organisation used the name of UNESCO and its logo without any approval from the international body.
Sources requesting anonymity said that the organisation had sold ‘preview show’ passes for around 24 big-budget pujas at very high prices. In many cases, the prices of the passes ranged between Rs 1,800 and Rs 5,500 each, sources said.
According to the preliminary investigation, around 19,000 people in 2022 and 34,000 people in 2023 had registered their names for the ‘preview passes’. In 2024, around 61,000 people had registered their names for the passes.
Based on these alleged irregularities, different teams of the ED started search operations at 10 various locations, including Sen’s locations, in the city and outskirts since this morning.