Police found money stashed in a car and bed boxed at the homes of the two businessmen
Around Rs 8 crore in cash was recovered from the apartments and car of two businessmen-brothers in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday, police said.
According to the Kolkata Police, the search operation took place at midnight on Saturday after two banks alerted the police on October 14 about transactions of huge amounts by the two businessmen who had accounts in the banks.
At least Rs 2 crore was recovered from a car parked outside the homes of Sailesh Pandey and Aurovind Pandey in an upscale housing complex in Shibpur area, a police officer said. The officers then entered the flats owned by the two brothers and found more money in the box beds in the apartments. The family members of the businessmen were not present at the time of the raid, police said.
A case was registered at Hare Street Police Station and the Anti-Bank Fraud Section of the detective department of the Kolkata Police started the investigation. A lookout notice has been issued by the Kolkata Police against the brothers whose whereabouts are unknown. Two bank accounts linked to them with large amounts of money are also being examined.
Since July this year, there has been a series of seizures of large amounts of cash either by central or state investigative agencies in West Bengal. This has also led to trading of charges between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Commenting on the raid, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya slammed the state government claiming that a small section of people has "amassed huge wealth, ill-gotten money with the support of the TMC".
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen responded by saying that such seizures were an indicator that the state police were on the trail of illegally stashed money.