KOLKATA: Another minister of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, Jyotipriya Mallick, was arrested by the sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged ration scam on Friday after a 20-hour interrogation at his Salt Lake residence. The minister was taken into custody for discrepancies in his statement and non-cooperating with the investigators, said an ED official.
Last year, the same central agency had arrested former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee in connection with the irregularities in the recruitment in state-aided schools.
“I am a victim of conspiracy hatched by the BJP and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhkri,” said Mallick, former food and supplies minister and present forest minister, while being taken out of her residence by the ED officials.
Adhikari, in a post on his X handle, requested the director, ED, to investigate the West Bengal chief minister’s involvement in the ration scam.
Mallick was taken to ESI Hospital in Thakurpukur, on the southern outskirts of Kolkata, for his medical check-up which continued for three hours, from where he was then taken to Bankshall court.
Hours after the ED raided Mallick’s residence and seven other places on Thursday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee held an unscheduled press conference and lashed out against the Centre’s ‘misuse of central agencies’ to ‘unleash vendetta’ against anyone who speaks against it. Accusing central agencies of adopting unlawful means to ‘extract’ names, Mamata said she would lodge an FIR against the BJP and the ED if anything happens to Mallick, who is suffering from high blood sugar.
Mamata is scheduled to be present at the Durga Puja carnival displaying 96 idols on Red Road on Friday.
Reacting to Mallick’s arrest, Leader of Opposition Adhikari said the West Bengal government would have to convene cabinet meetings and Assembly sessions inside the jail in future.
The ED’s raid at Mallick’s residence in Nagerbazar, North 24 Parganas, was followed by the recent arrest of Bakibur Rahaman, a prime accused in the foodgrain scam.
“We decided to search Mallick’s house and other places on the basis of leads that emerged during the course of Rahaman’s interrogation. We found that foodgrains meant for Public Distribution System (PDS) supplies were illegally sold to private shops and involvement of Rahaman in it,” said an official of the ED.
The central agency said it came across lakhs of fake ration cards and names of companies in the name of several persons having links to Mallick and Rahaman which played a crucial role in the foodgrain scam.
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged the alleged ration scam is bigger than the recruitment scam in schools, in which the chief minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Narula were summoned by the ED several times for interrogation.