Coal trader raids intensify: ED conducts 12-hour raid on Dhanbad coal trader's properties; Investigates financial irregularities and transactions

Dhanbad: Sleuths from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) swooped in on the office and residence of city-based coal trader Manoj Agarwal on Friday and conducted searches that last over 12 hours.The simultaneous raids at Dhansar and Bhelatand began around 7:30 am under a security cordon of central security forces. ED sleuths sifted through files containing financial papers and other relevant papers for hours looking for financial irregularities.Sources said the ED team is scrutinising financial transactions, coal trade-related papers, and electronic data from both sites. Agarwal, however, was not at home during the raids.

Agency officials around 7:30 pm in the evening.This raid came just a month after the ED conducted a massive operation across 18 locations in Dhanbad. During that earlier action, several important documents and digital records were reportedly seized from the premises of coal traders Anil Goyal and Lalbabu Singh.Friday’s raid marks the second major ED intervention within a month into alleged irregularities in coal trade and money laundering. The agency, however, did not divulge any detail about the raids till late in the evening.