Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned Debasish Kumar, Trinamool Congress MLA and candidate for the upcoming assembly poll from south Kolkata’s high-profile Rashbehari assembly seat, in connection with alleged land deals in the city, an official from the federal agency said, requesting anonymity.. Debasish Kumar, a member of the Mayor-in-Council at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), won the Rashbehari seat for the first time in 2021. (https://www.debasishkumar.com). Kumar, a member of the Mayor-in-Council at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), won the Rashbehari seat for the first time in 2021. In the coming two-phase Bengal polls, he is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Swapan Dasgupta, a senior journalist and former Rajya Sabha member.. “Kumar came under scrutiny after documents recently seized from the residence of a real estate businessman, Amit Ganguly, indicated that some disputed lands were sold at a high price for real estate business. Papers used for these land deals could only be provided by KMC insiders,” the ED official said.. Kumar was summoned in the morning and asked by ED officials to return in the afternoon with relevant documents.. “I will not utter a word about the investigation or why I was summoned,” Kumar told reporters outside the ED office.. TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar alleged that the ED probe was politically motivated.. “The BJP knows it cannot win the Bengal polls. This is not the first time it has used federal agencies against TMC leaders before elections,” Majumdar said.. Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar dismissed the allegations as “baseless.”. “Why is ED questioning Kumar and not you or me? TMC should stop making the same baseless allegation whenever there is an ED or CBI operation. Why don’t they move court saying their candidate is being harassed unnecessarily,” Sarkar said.
