The sleuths are conducting searches at a flat in Salt Lake, since 7 am apart from raids at five more places at Park Street, Russell Street, Baguihati, and Kaikhali area. The Central Force personnel are also accompanying the investigators.
In the raid at a businessman’s house in IB Block, Salt Lake, the police from Bidhannagar South station reached the spot and picked up an argument with the ED sleuths. However, the police let them go ahead with the raids after they produced the search warrant. The ED showed the search warrant to the woman who opened the door though the businessman, Biswajit Das, was not at home.
Meanwhile, the raid at Baguihati area witnessed dramatic moments when ED officials reached the apartment of a businessman on VIP Road. The businessman, Hanis Tasriwal, threw his two mobile phones from the seventh floor that were later recovered by the investigators.
The ED has already arrested West Bengal former minister Jyotipriya Mallick, former Bangaon mayor Shankar Adhya and businessman and rice-wheat mill owner Bakibur Rahman, known to be close to the minister and Shankar Adhya, in connection with the scam.
According to the central agency, Mallick used three shell companies for laundering the proceeds of the crime. In its submission in a Kolkata court, the ED had claimed that ration meant for targeted PDS beneficiaries in West Bengal was “siphoned off in an unethical but organised manner”.
Meanwhile, a manhunt is on for Trinamool Congress’ influential leader Shahjahan Sheikh of Sandeshkhali in connection with the ration scam who remains at large.
After arresting the former Bangaon mayor, the ED told the court that Shankar Adhya and his family owned more than 90 foreign exchange trading companies and Rs 20,000 crore had been transacted abroad through those companies. The ED suspects that the money could be related to ration ‘corruption’.
The ED said they are in the process of collecting evidence and that out of the Rs 20,000 crore, nearly half the amount belongs to Mallick, the former food minister of the state.
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