Acting under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), ED search teams descended upon at least eight locations across key urban centres, including Kolkata, Bidhannagar (North 24 Parganas), and Siliguri. The operation targeted a complex money laundering web believed to be operating through specific bars and restaurants across the state.
The list of recovered assets was striking. The haul included a Land Rover Defender and a Jaguar, alongside critical property documents and numerous digital devices. Investigators also successfully traced several bank accounts allegedly utilised to conceal and rotate the significant proceeds derived from the criminal enterprise.
In what officials described as a startling operational detail, search teams reportedly uncovered unique “plastic notes” being actively circulated inside the dance bars. These notes, functioning as a form of in-house currency, are suspected by the agency to have been used to facilitate illicit payments and internal trafficking-related transactions within the syndicate.
The PMLA investigation stems from a series of First Information Reports (FIRs) and state police chargesheets naming main accused Jagjit Singh, Ajmal Siddiqui, and Bishnu Mundra, along with their key associates. The investigation alleges the group systematically lured vulnerable women with false promises of employment before coercing them into prostitution, subsequently laundering the criminal profits through various shell firms and benami holdings.
The predicate offences underpinning the money laundering case fall under the purview of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1986.
Officials confirmed that further intensive inquiries are currently underway to comprehensively trace the global money trail, identify all beneficiaries of the network, and uncover potential international linkages to the massive trafficking operation.
