Who are Mrinmoy Malakar and Ranesh Kumar Singh? They are directors of Ananta Texfab Pvt Ltd, a company registered on March 23, 2012. It is an active company that filed its annual returns and financial statements till March 31, 2021. Nothing wrong with all this till one checks the registered address of the company.

Its Flat No. 8A, Block-5, Club Town Heights, Belgharia, Kolkata. This is the same address that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided on July 27 as part of its probe against former West Bengal minister and suspended Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee and his associate Arpita Mukherjee.

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The flat apparently belongs to Mukherjee. The raid yielded Rs 27.90 crore in unaccounted for cash and Rs 4.31 crore in gold, apart from incriminating documents.

On Friday, the ED informed a Special Court about Ananta Texfab Pvt Ltd, claiming that Mukherjee maintained close association with Chatterjee’s family members through this company. The Authorised Capital of this company is a mere Rs 2 lakhs and it has a Paid of Capital of Rs 1.5 lakh.

The ED is now investigating whether this is a shell company used by Chatterjee and Mukherjee to launder the ill-gotten gains from recruitment of school teachers and non-teaching staff.

Incidentally, Mrinmoy Malakar has links with several other companies. He is the director in at least two other existing companies. One of these is Viewmore Highrise Pvt Ltd that came into existence on March 14, 2012. This company’s registered address is also Flat No. 8A, Block-5, Club Town Heights, Belgharia, Kolkata. As per the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, this company’s balance sheet was last filed on March 31, 2019.

There are some other companies that Mrinmoy Malakar is connected with but their registered offices are in the Central Business District of Kolkata. Ranesh Kumar Singh also has links with other companies. The ED apparently has its hands full.

The Special Court remanded both Chatterjee and Mukherjee to judicial custody for 14 days on Friday.

During this period, the ED will continue to interrogate them in prison. People should not be shocked if more serious crimes come to light in the days to come, an ED official said.