Enforcement Directorate officials on Friday carried out searches at more than 40 locations across Jharkhand and West Bengal in connection with a money laundering probe involving the coal mafia network.

The cases together point to large-scale coal pilferage, causing an estimated loss of hundreds of crores to the government.

In Jharkhand, the agency is searching around 18 locations as part of its probe. In West Bengal, the ED’s Kolkata unit is conducting searches at 24 premises across Durgapur, Purulia, Howrah and Kolkata.

These operations pertain to several major cases of coal theft and smuggling, including those linked to Anil Goyal, Sanjay Udhyog, LB Singh and Amar Mandal. Premises associated with Narendra Kharka, Anil Goyal, Yudhistir Ghosh, Krishna Murari Kayal and others are also being searched.

(This is a developing story)