ED raids Trinamool's district office in Bolpur

Kolkata: From late Monday afternoon, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting a raid at Trinamool Congress' district office at Bolpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

The raid is significant on two counts.

First, the ED action came just a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressed an administrative review meeting in the same district, during which she expressed solidarity with party strongman Anubrata Mondal, who is currently serving judicial custody at Tihar Jail in Delhi in connection with the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam in the state.

Secondly, the ED raid is taking place at the same party office which was operated by Mondal as the erstwhile Trinamool district president.

Eye witnesses said that on reaching the spot, the ED officials first questioned the owners of some shops located in the same building as the party office.

The shop-owners were reportedly asked about certain details, such as how much and whom do they pay rent to, etc.

As per sources, before reaching the Trinamool office in Bolpur, the members of the ED team reached the local office of the West Bengal Land & Land Reforms Department and interacted with the block land revenue officer there.

The sources also said that the central agency sought details of the records of the property on which the party office is located.

However, the ED remained tight-lipped on the exact reason behind the raid, which was continuing till the time of filing of this report.