NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted searches in Jharkhand and West Bengal as part of a money laundering investigation linked to generation of "fraudulent" GST invoices, official sources said.

At least nine locations in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Kolkata are being raided.

The ED suspects that the accused Shiv Kumar Deora, Sumit Gupta and Amit Gupta allegedly generated fake invoices worth Rs 14,325 crore resulting in ineligible ITC (input tax credit) claims of over Rs 800 crore.

The searches aim to gather documents and assets linked to the alleged proceeds of crime under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.