Supreme Court to hear ED plea to cancel bail to West Bengal coal scam 'kingpin'

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the plea of Enforcement Directorate seeking cancellation of bail granted to alleged West Bengal coal smuggling 'kingpin' Anup Majee and issued notice to him but it observed that the agency was dragging its feet as the probe was going on for the last six years.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice on the ED's plea challenging a Delhi High Court order granting anticipatory bail to Majee in June last year. It, however, rejected ED's plea for an early date and listed the case for Sept, and Majee would continue to enjoy the protection till then.

Additional solicitor general S V Raju, appearing for the ED, contended that Majee was earlier absconding in the case in which he is the kingpin and Rs 2,700 crore of national resources were plundered.

He said that Majee's accountant is still absconding. Countering his arguments, senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, appearing for Majee, said that his client had cooperated with the investigation and he appeared 23 times before the agency, including 13 times when the protection from arrest was not there.

The bench was initially not inclined to entertain ED's plea, but it finally passed order in favour of the agency after ASG insisted the court hear the case.

Anup Majee, alias Lala, against whom the ED initiated its money laundering investigation in 2020 on a CBI FIR, is considered the prime accused who can unravel money trail of alleged payoffs of over Rs 1,300 crore made to senior Trinamool Congress functionaries during 2020-21.

During searches on premises linked to Majee and his associates a diary was recovered by ED from Niraj Singh, Majee's accountant, that allegedly revealed coded records of payoffs of Rs 1,350 crore. According to sources, one of the entries referred to one "Pankaj da" who was paid in instalments of Rs 10 crore each, beginning March 2020.

Other entries referred to "Bankura IC", who took deliveries of cash cartons allegedly on behalf of TMC leaders. Bankura police station in-charge Ashok Mishra was on Apr 4, 2021 arrested by ED.