KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will probe how the properties of leaders and ministers of West Bengal are growing phenomenally.
As many as 19 leaders will be under the scanner and most of them are ministers, MLAs, and leaders of the ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The list includes names such as Arjun Singh, Sovan Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Bratya Basu, Javed Khan, Iqbal Ahmed, Jyotipriya Mallik, Seuli Saha and Gautam Deb.
The names of Speaker of West Bengal Legislative Assembly Biman Banerjee as well as former finance minister Amit Mitra, along with the late Subrata Mukherjee and the late Sadhan Pande, also figure in the list.
A few weeks ago, the ED, after its probe, recovered close to Rs 50 crore in cash from suspended TMC minister Partha Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee. Both are in judicial custody now.
In his PIL, Ahmed also listed the immovable and immovable assets of the leaders, after which he asked the court how the assets of these leaders and ministers increased substantially from 2011 to 2016. He requested an ED investigation into the matter.
He also informed the court that in many cases, despite their wives not being involved in any profession, their wealth grew manifold within five years.