The Enforcement Directorate launched one of its largest coordinated operations on November 21, storming 44 locations across Jharkhand and West Bengal and recovering cash and jewellery exceeding Rs 14 crore, alongside a trove of property deeds, digital devices, and incriminating ledgers that expose a deeply entrenched illegal coal mining and smuggling syndicate operating with impunity for years.
Deploying over 100 officers supported by CRPF contingents, the agency simultaneously raided 20 premises in Jharkhand’s coal-rich Dhanbad and Dumka districts linked to key figures such as Lal Bahadur Singh, Anil Goyal, Sanjay Khemka, and Amar Mondal, while 24 sites in West Bengal—including Durgapur, Purulia, Howrah, and Kolkata—connected to Narendra Kharka, Krishna Murari Kayal, Yudhishthir Ghosh, Raj Kishore Yadav, Lokesh Singh, Chinmay Mondal, and Nirad Baran Mondal were sealed and searched under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Seized diaries, handwritten registers, and digital records allegedly detail a systematic racket involving theft of coal from Eastern Coalfields Limited leases in Jharkhand, its clandestine transportation using forged challans and invalid e-way bills, and final sale through unauthorised coke ovens and illegal toll plazas in West Bengal, generating hundreds of crores in illicit profits while depriving the exchequer of massive royalty and GST revenue.
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Investigators also uncovered property documents and beneficiary lists that point to the direct involvement of local politicians, mine officials, and law enforcement personnel who allegedly received regular protection money, revealing how the syndicate exploited porous inter-state borders and regulatory gaps to sustain one of eastern India’s most lucrative criminal enterprises.
The ED has stated that forensic analysis of the seized material is underway, with multiple arrests and attachment of benami assets anticipated in the coming weeks as the probe expands into an even wider network of coal mafia operatives who have long treated public resources as private fiefdoms.
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