ED seals accounts of Kingfisher United East Bengal Football

The accounts were frozen in connection to the multi-crore Saradha scam probe

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sealed the accounts of Kingfisher United East Bengal Club Pvt Ltd, the holding company of East Bengal Football Club, in connection with the  Saradha scam.

Senior officials of the directorate said that the account was sealed because the money that was received by the club from the Saradha group was deposited in this account.

Kalyan Majumdar, general secretary, East Bengal said that if the accounts were not defreezed, the club would face difficulties in making payments to the players.

“As the ED has sealed accounts of our holding company , it will not be possible for us to run the club. Therefore, we will be urging the ED to defreeze the account so that we may make payments to the players,” said Majumdar.

ED is reportedly trying to wrap up the Saradha case by November and has been stepping up investigations.

Last week, ED sealed more than 2,500 accounts of the Rose Valley group following which the group’s chairman Goutam Kundu met directorate officials requesting to defreeze the accounts so that salaries could be paid to its more than 10,000 employees ahead of the festive season.

Trinamool Congress MP,  Srinjoy Bose, was also questioned by the ED on Monday in connection with the multi-crore scam. Bose is the owner of the Bengali daily, Pratidin.  

The directorate is carrying out a parallel investigation of the scam along with the CBI.

The CBI has already made some arrests. Among them is East Bengal’s Debabrata Sarkar. Senior TMC leader and former DGP, Rajat Majumdar, is also in custody. CBI is carrying out the investigations on directions from Supreme Court.