ED frames charges against EX-TMC leader in smuggling case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against former Trinamool Congress youth wing leader Vinay Mishra, his brother Vikas Mishra and Mohammad Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of a cattle smuggling racket across the India-bangladesh border, people familiar with the development said.

Besides theses three, the ED charge sheet, filed under prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) in a Delhi court on April 16, also names some companies allegedly used for laundering money made through the cattle smuggling. The racket involves several Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, Customs department officials, police officers, smugglers and politicians from West Bengal.

ED special prosecutor Nitesh Rana on Monday requested the court to take the cognisance of the charge sheet while arguing that the accused were involved in money laundering.

The agency had arrested Haque on February 18 this year after several hours of questioning in Delhi while Vikas Mishra was arrested in March last year.

Vinay Mishra left India in 2020 and acquired citizenship of Vanuatu, a chain of 80 islands in the south pacific. His lawyers informed the Calcutta high court last year that he had renounced his Indian citizenship in November 2020 and the application was cleared by the Indian consulate general in Dubai.

The PMLA probe in the cattle smuggling case is based on a CBI FIR filed in 2020, which alleges cattle seized by the BSF at the border were undervalued and auctioned with the help of some customs officers so that traders could buy these at low prices and legally sell them again in Bangladesh. Part of the sale proceeds allegedly went to some TMC leaders and government officers.

THE RACKET ALSO INVOLVES SEVERAL BSF PERSONNEL, OFFICIALS FROM CUSTOMS, POLICE DEPARTMENTS