The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted raid and search operations in at least 14 locations in Bengal in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case.
Sources said most of the places where the different teams of ED officials conducted raids and search operations are concentrated in Kolkata and the adjacent district of Howrah.
Each team of ED officials was escorted by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel.
The raid started with the two residences of a businessman, Mahendra Agarwal at Bangur Avenue in south Kolkata. Besides conducting raid and search operations there, the ED officials also interrogated the said businessman.
The second place where the raid and search operations were conducted was the residence and warehouse of a public distribution system (PDS) dealer Loknath Saha at Panchla in Kolkata adjacent to Howrah district.
The other places where the ED officials are conducting raid and search operations, sources said, are mainly the residences and shops of different PDS dealers, who have been under the scanner of the ED for quite some time in connection with the ration distribution case.
To recall, in the last week of September, the ED submitted a supplementary charge-sheet at a special court in Kolkata, which included eight new names. Of the eight names included in the supplementary charge-sheet, two were Trinamul Congress leaders from Deganga in North 24-Parganas district, Anisur Rahaman and his brother Alif Nur a.k.a Mukul Rahaman, a businessman.
The ED got definite clues about the Rahaman brothers having close association with the former state food and supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick and the Kolkata-based businessman Bakibur Rahaman.
The minister is currently in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the scam.
The ED claimed to have identified a network of at least 60 small ration dealers directly involved in the modus operandi in the alleged scam.
The modus operandi of the alleged scam, according to sources, was that — first, these ration dealers procured foodgrain from farmers bypassing the official procurement route at prices lower than the minimum support price (MSP) and, second, selling the same products at premium prices in the open market instead of selling them through PDS route.