The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached Rs 10.29 crore of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the form of a demand draft tendered by it during the investigation into an alleged money laundering case involving Alchemist Group and others.
The head of the Alchemist Group, former TMC MP Kanwar Deep Singh, was arrested by the ED in January on charges of money laundering.
“The ED investigation has revealed that an amount of Rs 10.29 crore was paid by Alchemist Airways Pvt Ltd to various aviation/helicopter companies for the aviation services availed by All India Trinamool Congress during the campaigning for 2014 Lok Sabha elections for its star campaigners such as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy, Munmun Sen, MP Nusrat Jahan and others,” an ED spokesperson alleged in a statement Monday.
The ED had initiated a probe into the affairs of Alchemist Group in 2018 on the basis of FIRs registered by Kolkata Police against Singh, his son Karandeep Singh, M/s Alchemist Township India Limited, M/s Alchemist Holdings Limited, and various other group companies and their directors for allegedly cheating thousands of customers and investors.
“The ED investigation revealed that M/s Alchemist Group collected funds amounting to more than Rs 1,800 crore from investors/victims in its companies namely, M/s Alchemist Holdings Limited and M/s Alchemist Township India Limited on false promises of providing high returns and giving flats/villas/plots/high rate of interest on the investments to the public/investors/victims. However, the investors/public were never returned their money and the funds were siphoned off/diverted to various group companies of the Alchemist Group,” the spokesperson said.
The ED investigation has also revealed that a part of the money collected by cheating the public was used by Alchemist Group for making payments to aviation companies on behalf of the AITC, the ED alleged.
