I-T Raids Former Trinamul Congress MLA Sohrab Ali's Residences

Kolkata: The Income Tax (I-T) department on Wednesday raided residences of former Trinamul Congress MLA Sohrab Ali and his aides among 35 locations in West Bengal for alleged tax evasion in the scrap iron business.

Among the 35 addresses, nine were in Asansol and Raniganj of Burdwan West. These included two houses each of Sohrab at Rahmatnagar in Hirapur and his friend-cum-businessman Imtiaz Ali.

The I-T raid, under the central forces’ cover, started from 5 am and continued throughout the day. It also covered the houses of Pankaj Agarwal, the ex-TMC MLA’s accountant and ration dealer, according to sources.

The I-T department also conducted searches at the residences of local businessmen Mahendra Sharma and Sujit Singh, sources revealed. Sohrab who was a TMC councilor in Asansol initially. In 2011, he won on a party ticket from Raniganj in the West Bengal Assembly Election.

The MLA however did not get the ticket from the TMC five years later due to his conviction in 2015 in a case of theft of railway wagons and iron scraps in 1995. His wife Nargis Bano is a TMC councillor of ward no 42 of Asansol Municipal Corporation.