Special court remands Biswajit Poddar to 10 days' ED custody in illegal land dealings case

A special court has remanded Biswajit Poddar, alias 'Sona Pappu', to 10 days ED custody for questioning in a money laundering probe into alleged land dealings and extortion in south Kolkata.

A special court here on Tuesday remanded Biswajit Poddar alias 'Sona Pappu' to 10 days ED custody in connection with a money laundering probe launched by the federal probe agency into alleged illegal land dealings and extortion in south Kolkata.

Seeking Poddar's remand, the ED's counsel stated that the accused was an integral part of a nexus, in connection with which already Kolkata Police deputy commissioner Santanu Sinha Biswas and builder Jay Kamdar have been arrested.

The special court granted the ED remand prayer of Poddar for 10 days for questioning him in connection with the probe after hearing the parties in the matter.

The ED further claimed that more than Rs 16 crore were credited to Poddar's account in the last two years and that a firearm was also recovered from his residence.

Poddar, who was absconding for nearly three months, appeared before the federal probe agency at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake on Monday.

After interrogation for almost nine hours, he was placed under arrest by the ED officers owing to alleged non-cooperation in answering the questions.

Poddar had been served five summonses earlier in connection with the probe pertaining to alleged land grabbing, extortion and illegal financial transactions in areas such as Kasba, Tiljala and Topsia in south Kolkata.