ED searches Lodha’s Kolkata home and office, seizes papers

Kolkata: A special Enforcement Directorate (ED) team from New Delhi raided and searched arrested businessman Parasmal Lodha’s residence and firm in south Kolkata on Tuesday. The team led by an assistant director level officer arrived in Kolkata on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, 15 ED officers, divided in two teams, launched the raid at Mr Lodha’s residence in Queens Park in Ballygunge and his firm, The Peerless Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd, on S.N. Roy Road in Behala.

During the raid, they questioned the security guards and caretaker at the residence of the suspect and employees at his firm. Some financial documents were also seized from the firm.

The raid came after the ED found out that Mr Lodha used to charge a hefty commission of 15 to 20 per cent from merchants and traders to convert their demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, according to sources adding that the conversion of old currency notes took place at his firm.

A list of such merchants who had approached Mr Lodha to convert their old notes has also been prepared, sources revealed.

The ED had on December 22 arrested Lodha, 62, after the recovery of a large amount of cash in new currency notes from a company that belonged to a Delhi-based advocate, Rohit Tandon, of T&T law firm, and J. Shekhar Reddy of Chennai. Delhi police officials seized Rs 14 crore, of which over Rs 2.2 crore was in new Rs 2,000 notes, from the law firm owned by Tandon.