Sources said the agency is probing Haque’s alleged links with cryptocurrency transactions. Kolkata: The ED, which searched seven premises linked to Trinamool MP Nadimul Haque on Monday, continued its operation at his Kolkata office until the early hours of Tuesday before leaving with documents.
Questioning the allegations against Akhbar-E-Mashriq, a TMC MP asked whether circulation disputes justified a 12-hour search at his Delhi office. ED officials suspect Haque is linked to cryptocurrency trails involving over 300 Bitcoin transactions, with alleged irregularities worth Rs 60 crore. Investigators reportedly found transfers of 307 Bitcoins to private wallets and a Rs 1.5-crore cash entry without corresponding physical cash.
O’Brien also alleged ED officials threatened staff over access to the Delhi office and claimed Haque was targeted due to his religious identity. “Because Nadimul Haque is a Muslim, he has been targeted.
Sources said ED officials collected documents from him. On the cryptocurrency allegations, the MP said Haque’s financial transactions were legitimate and his taxes were paid. An ED official said, “This is how proceeds of crime are concealed and kept outside the formal banking system,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien said, “This is pure vendetta to divert attention from students who lost their lives in the Delhi building collapse. We will write to the (Rajya Sabha) presiding officer,” he said.
Haque, a journalist and businessman, is director of a company that publishes Urdu daily Akhbar-E-Mashriq. The MP also alleged investigators recorded the statement of a person who does not know Urdu. In Bengal, BJP is doing the same.
He was in Ranchi on Monday on an official trip with the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances and returned to Kolkata on Tuesday.