As ED seized a huge amount of cash from the residence of former Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee, the probe agency has identified the role of more than 14 shell companies in the money laundering case.
The ED probe revealed that shell companies were operating with the address of Arpita Mukherjee’s Belghoria flat.
The shell companies or ‘Jamakarchi’ companies have been used for a long to convert huge amounts of black money to white across the country.
Such companies or corporations exist only on paper and have no office and no employees. However, they may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets like intellectual property or ships.
“Kolkata market once used to be the capital of shell companies. The companies are the best legal way to route money, it’s a way of money laundering, people earned crores through this,” Sources in the market said.
Such companies have been used as a mechanism for various financial manoeuvres or kept idle for the future. Since the 1980s, shell companies have existed in Kolkata and have flourished since then.
Black Money worth crores of rupees are turned into white via these shell companies, a Kolkata resident, who claims to be an agent of a shell company based in Mumbai, said on the condition of anonymity.
“About 20 lakh shell companies used to exist around 2011. However, then with strict regulation of IT rules and other regulations, the number has reduced. As…
