ED conducts inquiries against co-op banks, jewellers in Bengal

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted multiple enquiry operations at cooperative banks in three districts of West Bengal and detected alleged irregularities in deposits worth crores.

In the first instance in the Hooghly district, a four-member team of the agency visited the Chinsurah Central Cooperative Bank and asked bank authorities to send them the identities of some account holders.

Official sources said the agency suspects irregularities in various accounts and it also examined papers of the bank's 19 branches in the said district.

Later, the officials asked the bank to send them the Know Your Customer (KYC) details of account holders, who had deposited at least Rs 49 crore.

The Chinsurah Central Cooperative Bank has no elected chairman for the past two years.

Similar operations were carried out by the agency in the Howrah and Nadia districts in order to check activities in suspected accounts including those which have been dormant for sometime now.

The sleuths also visited at least half-a-dozen jewellers in the state capital on Thursday and recovered some documents from these traders, especially of sales just before and after November 8 when the note scrap was announced by the government.

"Records of the jewellers show some back dated sales were made and even entries of sale and purchase was made in the name of fictitious customers. The investigations are going on," they said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) along with the I-T department and other agencies has been carrying out operations against black money hoarders in the wake of the demonetisation of two high value currencies of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500.