Kolkata/Singur: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided two homes of singer Indranil Sen, who was a junior tourism minister in the erstwhile Trinamool govt, and many other addresses in connection with complaints of corruption linked to the alleged sale of Durga Puja “preview passes”.ED officials searched 15 addresses in Kolkata and Hooghly, including Sen’s homes in Kasba and near Singur, and homes of his relatives.An apartment in Highland Park, owned by a businessman involved in event management, was among the addresses searched.Sen has been summoned to ED’s Salt Lake office at 11am on Wednesday.The raids were linked to a police probe against the singer and his wife, Madhuchhanda, following a complaint lodged by travel agent Jaydip Mukherjee.Sen’s wife is associated with an organisation called ‘massArt’, which works towards “promoting art and culture of Bengal”.Set up in June 2022, ‘massArt’ had allegedly showcased a tie-up with Unesco and sold “preview passes” for select Durga Puja pandals.When asked about the ED raids, CM Suvendu Adhikari said, “Indranil Sen used to take a cut from singers’ payments”. BJP refused to comment on the case.An anticipatory bail petition moved by Sen and his wife is pending at Calcutta HC. Sources said “preview passes” for 24 Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata were sold through massArt at prices ranging between Rs 1,749 and Rs 5,499. “massArt was running a cartel in Unesco’s name. They selected 24 pujas and sold tickets for entering those pandals. None other than those having tickets were allowed to enter the pandals during that period (before the pandals were opened to the general public),” said Jaydip Mukherjee, who filed the police complaint.“They claimed Unesco was their partner. I had sent an email to Unesco in 2023. They called me up on Sept 23, 2025, and denied having any partnership with massArt for selecting pandals,” said Mukherjee, who appeared before ED on Sept 17.The sources said the investigators suspect that around 19,000 passes were sold in 2022, 34,000 in 2023 and 61,000 in 2024. ED suspects financial irregularities of Rs 50 crore to Rs 60 crore linked to the sale of “preview passes”.Earlier, Sen had claimed that police had found no financial record, balance sheet or audit report to back the allegations of financial irregularities. He had also claimed that massArt had issued, not sold, VIP cards in 2023 and 2024 with Unesco’s permission and the world body’s logo was not used on the cards.
