The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted raids at multiple locations in Jharkhand and neighbouring Bihar as part of a money-laundering investigation against Pankaj Mishra and other persons acquainted with him.

Pankaj Mishra is the political representative of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren in his home constituency Barhait.

The searches are being conducted in Sahibganj district and its towns like Barhait and Rajmahal and also in Bhagalpur in Bihar. The probe pertains to alleged irregularities in the award of toll plaza tenders in the state.

The locations are being searched and the action is being undertaken under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said.

The money laundering case stems from a Jharkhand police FIR which was taken over by ED and it is also looking at purported links between alleged illegal coal mining operatives and those involved in operations of toll plaza tenders in Jharkhand, officials said.

Sources added that this was a separate case and the raids were not in connection with the money laundering case that the ED had registered against the now-suspended Jharkhand mining secretary Pooja Singhal.

The fresh case originates from a June 2020 complaint made by a toll tax contractor with the Badharwa police station in Sahibganj, sources said.

There were unconfirmed reports late in the evening of cash recovered from some of the locations during the search operation.