Income Tax Department Conducts Raids on Miraj Shah, Key Proposer for Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur
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Kolkata, April 17 (NationPress) On Friday, officials from the Income Tax (I-T) Department initiated a raid at the residence of Miraj Shah, who is among the four proposers for Mamata Banerjee's nomination as the Trinamool Congress candidate for the Bhabanipur Assembly seat in the forthcoming elections.
For this nomination, Mamata Banerjee selected four proposers representing different linguistic communities, reflecting the diverse character of the Assembly constituency.
Miraj Shah, representing the Gujarati community, was one of them. The other proposers included Ismat Hakim, spouse of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, representing the Muslim community; Nishpal Singh Rane, husband of actress-turned-politician Koel Mallick, representing the Punjabi community; and local Trinamool Congress block president Bablu Singh, representing the Bihari community.
On Friday afternoon, a contingent of Income Tax officials, accompanied by central armed police forces, arrived at Shah's residence on Elgin Road in Kolkata.
Miraj Shah is a trustee at the Bhabanipur Education Society College, also situated on Elgin Road, and is recognized as a politically significant figure in his area.
Sources familiar with the situation indicated that the raid is connected to an illegal land-grabbing money laundering case. Parallel raids are also ongoing at the residence and electoral camp office of veteran Trinamool Congress legislator and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Member-Mayor-in-Council Debasish Kumar, all located in South Kolkata.
Simultaneously, officials from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are conducting their own raids at various sites in and around Kolkata related to the same investigation, including a real estate company office and a chartered accountant's residence.
This series of raids has sparked a political controversy, with the Trinamool Congress accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of engaging in vendetta politics.