Top News

New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI): The TMC on Monday termed the Enforcement Directorate searches at premises linked to its Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque a "vicious political vendetta", with its Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien alleging that the action was aimed at diverting attention from a building collapse incident in Delhi in which students were killed.

In a statement, the TMC said the ED search at its party office in Delhi, which is also Haque's official residence, was completed in about two hours by around 1 pm, but the officials remained at the premises for nearly 10 more hours "awaiting instructions" before leaving after 10 pm.

The party claimed the officials found nothing during the search and took away an old phone, an old iPad and some hard disks containing electoral roll data, which it described as publicly available information.

The ED raided seven premises in Kolkata, Delhi and Ranchi on Monday as part of a money laundering probe against an Urdu daily promoted by Haque, officials said.

Haque (56) is a director of Akhbar-E-Mashriq Private Limited, which publishes Urdu daily "Akhbar-E-Mashriq". The ED case, registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from an FIR lodged by the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, according to the officials.

O'Brien alleged that the searches are being used to shift public attention from the building collapse.

"What the BJP is trying to do is create a diversion from the death of students in Delhi caused by their 'faltu' (useless) engine sarkar," the joint secretary and Rajya Sabha leader of the TMC said in a statement.

"To change the focus, they raided multiple places of Nadimul Haque and our party office in Delhi, which is Nadimul Haque's residence and we have been using it for 15 years," he said.

The TMC leader said Haque was in Ranchi, attending a meeting of the Parliament's Government Assurances Committee, when the ED searches were taking place.

"When the ED was raiding, Nadimul Haque was in Ranchi for the Government Assurances Committee. He raised this at the meeting. ED people were busy raiding his residences and fed stories to media that 'he can't be found'," O'Brien said.

He alleged that the ED action was politically motivated.

"We all know the accountability of ED but we will keep exposing BJP's 'faltu' engine sarkar," O'Brien said.

"This is a pure vendetta and attempts are being made to divert attention from students who lost their lives in the Delhi building collapse," he alleged.

O'Brien also accused ED officials of threatening party staff over access to the Delhi office.

"The ED officials also threatened us over the call, stating that if we don't provide keys to the office, they will break the lock and enter. Our office staff had gone out on some personal work," he said.

"We are not going to release a statement and fall into the BJP-ED trap of diversion with the use of the establishment 'Godi' media," O'Brien said.

Calling the BJP-led government "desperate", he questioned its handling of student protests.

"This is a sign of a desperate government. The government can't deal with students, how will it deal with opposition parties?" he asked.

The Rajya Sabha leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led party also alleged that Haque has been targeted because of his religious identity.

"Because Nadimul Haque is a Muslim, he has been targeted intentionally. In Bengal, BJP is doing the same. We will write about this to the presiding officer," he said.

He further alleged that the ED action was aimed at curbing the voice of the media.

"This is also a systematic targeting of media. Nadimul runs eastern India's biggest Urdu newspaper and this is an attempt by BJP and their agencies to curtail media voices," O'Brien alleged.

ED officials said the probe relates to allegations concerning the publication and dissemination of material promoting communal disharmony, "unaccounted" cash transactions and some funding from suspicious sources for the daily.

Agency officials claimed that the news outlet "overstated" its circulation to obtain government advertisements and received "majority" funds from the erstwhile TMC-led West Bengal government through an advertising agency which has connections with a Dubai-based entity. PTI AO KSS KSS

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)