KOLKATA, Oct 27: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested West Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-core ration distribution scam in the State, officials of the Central agency said.
The Minister was apprehended under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the early hours of Friday following over 17-18 hours of questioning, they said.
ED officials said Mallick was taken from his home in the Salt Lake area on the outskirts of Kolkata to the Central agency’s office here around 3.30 am.
He will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his custody, they said earlier in the day.
Mallick, who is a diabetic patient and has several other ailments, was taken to an ESI hospital in Joka in the southern part of the city, where he underwent medical tests, an ED officer said.
The Minister, after three hours of medical checkup at the hospital, was taken to the Bankshall Court here, he said, adding that “we need him for questioning, and that’s why we’ll seek his custody.”
“He was non-cooperative and gave confusing and self-contradictory replies to our officers during the questioning yesterday. He kept on saying that he was unable to take questions as he was ill. We need him to get answers to several queries related to the scam. The minister has been involved in the ration distribution irregularities,” the ED officer said.
“I am a victim of a great conspiracy,” the TMC minister said after being arrested by ED in connection with the alleged ration distribution scam.
Mallick also alleged that the “conspiracy was hatched by the BJP and its leader Suvendu Adhikari”, a former colleague in the TMC party.
“It is a conspiracy. The BJP is actively engaging in plotting nefarious schemes against us,” said Mallick, who is currently State Forest Minister and previously held the portfolio of Food and Supplies.
The ED had earlier arrested a confidant of the Minister, Bakibur Rahman, whose remand is ending this week.
Sources said that the central agency may seek to confront the two with each other’s version of events in the case.
Mallick’s arrest is the second instance of a Cabinet Minister of TMC being apprehended by central agencies in connection with corruption cases.
Last year, former state minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in a case related to a school job scam.
The agency had launched searches at Mallick’s residences on Thursday. It also raided his ancestral house on Amherst Street in central Kolkata. The alleged scam pertains to reported irregularities in the public distribution system and also in the distribution of food grains during the Covid lockdowns.
Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threatened to file a police complaint if anything happened to Mallick during the questioning as he was unwell and had several medical ailments.
Banerjee also termed the raids by the ED against opposition leaders as “a dirty political game” by the BJP. (PTI)
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