ED Raids Four Cities in Coal Scam Money Laundering Probe

The Enforcement Directorate carried out searches on Thursday at multiple locations across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi as part of an investigation into money laundering linked to an alleged coal pilferage scam in West Bengal.

The raids targeted premises connected to Indian PAC Consulting Pvt. Ltd., a political consultancy firm known as IPAC, including the Bengaluru residence of co-founder and director Rishi Raj Singh and the Mumbai home of former Aam Aadmi Party communications incharge Vijay Nair. Officials said the operations, conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, also covered sites in Delhi associated with a senior IPAC executive. This marks the second round of such actions against IPAC, following searches in January at the firm's Kolkata office and the residence of founder Pratik Jain.

The probe stems from a November 2020 First Information Report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which detailed a multimillion-rupee racket involving the illegal extraction and smuggling of coal from Eastern Coalfields Limited mines in the Kunustoria and Kajora areas near Asansol. According to the Enforcement Directorate, a hawala operator tied to the...