Ranit Kr. Singh , Kolkata - The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized incriminating documents, digital evidence, and a transaction diary uncovering a massive land-grabbing syndicate in Kolkata allegedly run by a history-sheeter, a businessman, and a former deputy commissioner of police. Investigators revealed Saturday that the trio—Biswajit Poddar alias Sona Pappu, businessman Joy Kamdar, and former cop Shantanu Sinha Biswas, all currently in custody—targeted senior citizens, using police intimidation to force them into selling valuable land well below market value for development. Following interrogation leads, the ED recently raided multiple locations, including the properties of a Kolkata Police sub-inspector, Biswas’s nephew, and a businessman, while placing roughly 30 other police officers under the scanner for their suspected involvement in the nexus.
The agency is aggressively tracing the money trail, focusing heavily on leads suggesting that Biswas owns properties in Dubai. Although chats and call records were found deleted on several seized mobile phones, digital forensic experts are working to recover the wiped data to fully map out the syndicate's financial operations. The probe deepened after the ED seized a crucial diary detailing monetary transactions and high-value gifts distributed to Biswas and other complicit police officers in exchange for facilitating the coercive land acquisitions.
The enforcement action follows a string of high-profile arrests in the case, beginning with Kamdar in April, followed by Biswas on May 14 after a grueling 10-hour interrogation, and Sona Pappu on May 18. Poddar, a known history-sheeter with a long record of land-grabbing offenses in West Bengal since entering the construction business around 2011, allegedly spearheaded the physical intimidation tactics. The ED's ongoing multi-state raids aim to completely dismantle the remaining arms of the network.
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