The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out search and seizure operations at six places in Calcutta, Howrah and their adjoining areas to tighten the noose around Sheikh Shahjahan, the Trinamul Congress strongman of Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas who remained untraced for almost two months.

The ED, whose officers had come under an attack allegedly from the associates of Shahjahan when they had gone to raid the Trinamul leader’s house at Sandeshkhali on January 5, has drawn up a fresh case against him for alleged irregularities in his export-import business.

Senior officials said a fresh Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) had been drawn up against Shahjahan — a karmadhyaksha at the North 24-Parganas zilla parishad — after preliminary investigations had revealed the Trinamul leader had carried out several irregularities in his import-export business.

Unlike the CBI or similar agencies that file a First Information Report (FIR) as a precursor to registering a criminal case against an accused, the ED draws up an ECIR, officials said.

Around 7am on Friday, separate ED teams landed at two addresses in Howrah’s Halderpara and Bijoygarh in Calcutta. Similar search and seizure operations were carried out in a few other addresses in North 24-Parganas. All the addresses belonged to traders with whom Shahjahan allegedly had links.

The Howrah-based trader dealt with the supply and the distribution of shrimp while running other businesses, ED officials said. They added
that the agency had specific reasons to believe that the trader had dealings with Shahjahan.

At Bijoygarh, the officers of the central investigating agency searched the house of a trader who ran an import-export business.

In North 24-Parganas, the ED conducted the searches after zeroing in on traders who exported the shrimp from Bengal.

“We want to find out if Shahjahan had diverted a part of the money that he made from grabbing land and waterbodies (bheries) in Sandeshkhali to his export-import business,” said a senior ED official. “We have summoned him for questioning on February 29.”

The Trinamul leader has been untraceable since January 5.

Shahjahan has not responded to three ED summonses till date.

Bengal police arrested Shahjahan’s two close aides Uttam Sardar and Shibaprasad Hazra but have failed to round him up despite widespread protests on his turf by a majority of villagers against the Trinamul strongman.

“The search and seizure operations will help us understand if Shahjahan had parked the proceeds of the alleged crime in businesses that involved the export of fish with the help of some of his business associates,” the ED official said.

“It will also help us get an idea of his possible whereabouts.”