Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court ordered Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday to arrest two businessmen, who were granted bail by lower court in a Rs 400 crore money laundering case without informing the agency. Identified as Shailesh Pandey and Prasenjit Das, the two businessmen were arrested by the ED from the court premises following the verdict of the single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh.
According to sources, in October 2022, the police had recovered more than Rs 8 crore from Pandey's residence in Howrah. After which, four people were arrested, including Pandey and Das. During the investigation, police initially traced transaction amounting to Rs 77 crore from two accounts of the Narendrapur branch of a nationalised bank. Further investigations revealed 17 fake bank accounts and after probing into six of those accounts, the Bank Fraud Investigation branch of the Kolkata police got evidence of transactions of around Rs 57 crore. Sources said that transactions worth a total of Rs 207 crore have been traced till now.
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Pandey and Das were granted bail from a lower court on January 21, but the ED was kept in the dark. When the matter came to light, the ED challenged this in the High Court. Following which, the court on Thursday ordered the two businessmen to appear before the court. In the presence of the two, the High Court quashed the verdict of the lower court and directed the ED to take them into its custody. After the announcement of the verdict, Pandey and Das were arrested from the court premises.
