The police raided two offices of the businessman on Friday night but he was said to be ``absconding''.

According to police sources, the businessman was a ``major conduit'' for ISI funds for terrorist activities in the eastern and the north-eastern regions of the country. He was also allegedly involved in financing the accused in a bomb blast at New Jalpaiguri railway station in North Bengal in June, in which 11 people were killed and over 60 injured.

The businessman and other members of his family were also accused of defrauding as many as eight banks in Bangladesh and about 300 small traders in the Chittagong town of Bangladesh of nearly Rs 2000 crore. The family, which had been the biggest grain merchants in Bangladesh since the 1960s, had shifted to Calcutta in the early 1990s. But the businessman, police said, hadmaintained links with some Bangladeshi politicians known for their pro-Pakistani activities.

Earlier this year, he allegedly transferred a huge sum of money from a bank in Calcutta to another in Kathmandu in Nepal to finance ISI activities in North Bengal. He was also suspected to have been in touch with Risaldar Mosleuddin, one of the prime accused in the Mujibur Rahman assassination case in Bangladesh, while the latter took refuge in Nadia district of West Bengal.

A Bangladesh Deputy High Commission official here confirmed the businessman had long been wanted by the police of that country in connection with several cases of frauds on banks and the capital market. He also said the businessman had maintained close contacts with some Bangladeshi Opposition politicians who had visited Calcutta this year.