KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned Debasish Kumar, a Trinamool MLA and candidate for the upcoming Assembly elections from the high-profile Rashbehari Assembly seat in South Kolkata, in connection with alleged land deals in the city, said an official from the federal agency, requesting anonymity.
Kumar, a mayor-council member of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), won the Rashbehari seat for the first time in 2021. In the upcoming two-phase bypolls in Bengal, he will face the BJP’s Swapan Dasgupta, a senior journalist and former Rajya Sabha member.
“Kumar came under scrutiny after documents recently seized from the residence of real estate tycoon, Amit Ganguly, indicated that some disputed lands were sold at a high price for real estate business. Papers used in these land deals could only be provided by KMC insiders,” the ED official said.
Kumar was called in the morning and ED officials asked him to return in the afternoon with relevant documents.
“I will not utter a single word about the investigation or the reason for my summoning,” Kumar told reporters outside the ED office.
TMC state vice president Jai Prakash Majumdar alleged that the ED probe was politically motivated.
“The BJP knows that it cannot win the Bengal elections. This is not the first time it has used federal agencies against TMC leaders ahead of the elections,” Majumdar said.
BJP Bengal spokesperson Debjit Sarkar dismissed the allegations as “baseless”.
“Why is the CEO questioning Kumar and not you or me? TMC should stop making the same baseless allegations when there is a CBI or CBI process. Why don’t they move the court saying their candidate is being harassed unnecessarily,” Sarkar said.
