ED files 1st charge sheet in Bengal ration distribution case, names Minister Mallick, bizman Rahaman

Kolkata:  Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday filed its first charge sheet in the ration distribution scam case in West Bengal.

The two high-profile names that have surfaced in the charge sheet, sources said, are that of the current West Bengal forest minister and the former state food & supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mallick and Kolkata-based businessman Bakibur Rahaman.

Both were arrested by ED for their alleged involvement with the ration distribution case. While Rahaman is currently serving judicial custody at the Presidency Central Correctional Home in south Kolkata, the minister is admitted to the state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College & Hospital. However, in the hospital too, he is under CCTV surveillance whose link is with the ED sleuths.

Besides naming the two individuals, sources added, the central agency sleuths in the first charge sheet have also referred to 10 shell corporate entities that were opened precisely to channelize and divert the ill-gotten proceedings of the alleged scam.

ED in the charge sheet, sources added, have also given details on how the arrested minister steered the operations in these shell entities by making his family relations, including his wife and daughter as well as his close confidants the directors of these corporate entities.

The central agency sleuths have also detailed the links of Rahaman, a close confidant of the minister, with these shell corporate entities.

Sources said that in the charge sheet the central agency sleuths have provided details of the modus operandi adopted by the arrested businessman in steering the irregularities in the matter.

The details about Rahaman include how he sold flour meant to be distributed through the public distribution system in the open market, especially to corporate entities engaged in marketing of packaged flour. Apart from that Rahaman has also been charged for illegally procuring paddy from the farmers by opening fake farmers cooperatives at prices lower than the minimum support price (MSP) and then selling the same paddy at price higher than MSP in the open market.

–IANS