Bengal cattle scam: Three directors of different shell companies under scanner

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have found that three shell companies run by three men were used to divert the proceeds of crime in the cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.

The agencies detected three new names -- Abdul Aziz, Abdul Hannan and Salim Hossain during their probe in the smuggling case.

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While tracking the money trail in the cattle smuggling scam, the central agencies found three shell companies, namely Hoque Mercantile Private Limited, Hoque Industries Private Limited and EM Constructor Private Limited, all floated by by Enamul Hoque, one of the prime accused in this scam and close associate of Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal.

As per the records of the Registrar of Companies (ROC) under the Union ministry of commerce, all the three persons named are the directors in these companies.

In the case of Hoque Industries Private Limited and Hoque Mercantile Private Limited the directors are Abdul Aziz and Abdul Abdul Hannan. On the other hand, in the case of EM Constructor Private Limited, Abdul Aziz is a director and Salim Hossain is an additional director.

ED sources said that although the corporate identification numbers, registration numbers and declared nature of trade are different, all these companies have the common address which is MK Point, 27 Bentinck Street, Kolkata 70001. In the case of the Hoque Mercantile and Hoque Industries even the room numbers in the said building are the same at 704. However, EM Constructor Private Limited has a different room number, which is 601.

As per the ROC records, the declared nature of trade for Hoque Mercantile was manufacture of structural metal products, tanks, reservoirs and steam generators. While Hoque Industries dealt in the manufacture of food products, EM Constructor traded in building repairs and completion.

Central agency sources doubt that such declared nature of the trade for all these three companies was just an eyewash and the actual purpose of floating these companies was to channelise the proceeds from illegal trades, including cattle smuggling to different destinations.

As already reported Bhuban Bhaskar, son of Border Security Force (BSF) commandant, Satish Kumar, was arrested in connection with the cattle smuggling trade. He was employed in Hoque Industries as an accountant from 2015 and 2017, the period when his father was posted as the commandant of 36th battalion of BSF at the India-Bangladesh borders in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, traditionally considered as the epicentre of cross-border cattle smuggling in smuggling in West Bengal.