As battle lines are drawn between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the role of Central investigating agencies, the recent ‘seizures’ of large amounts of cash has put the West Bengal’s ruling party in a tight spot.
On September 10, Enforcement Directorate seized more than ₹7 crore in cash from the residence of a businessman in Kolkata’s Garden Reach area, allegedly in connection with a mobile gaming app fraud. This was the fifth seizure of cash by investigating agencies in the past two months since a large amount of cash was seized from the residence of an associate of former Minister and TMC leader Partha Chatterjee.
With photographs of piles of seized cash being aired and published by the media, the State’s ruling party is finding it difficult to counter allegations of corruption. Despite the seizure on September 10 having no links to the TMC, a number of Ministers of the West Bengal government targeted the Central investigation agencies over it.
