ED questions ex-Bengal minister Rathin Ghosh in ration & municipal job scam cases
The Statesman | 15 May 2026
After dodging the Enforcement Directorate five times, former West Bengal minister Rathin Ghosh finally walked into the agency’s Salt Lake office in Kolkata on Friday morning. He arrived around 11 am for questioning in connection with a multi-crore job scam linked to municipal body recruitments across the state, in addition to ration and public distribution scheme scam.
Ghosh, who served as Food and Supplies Minister under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was surrounded by waiting journalists before he entered the building. He told reporters he was not entirely sure why the central agency had called him in.
The ED had issued notices to Ghosh well before the West Bengal Assembly elections last month. Each time, he declined to appear, citing the pressure of election campaigning. The agency, however, pressed on, and with the election season now over, Ghosh had little room left to stay away.
Despite the Trinamool Congress facing defeat in the assembly polls, Ghosh himself held his ground. He won from the Madhyamgram constituency in North 24 Parganas, his fifth consecutive victory from the same seat since 2011.
Earlier this week, the ED arrested another former Banerjee cabinet colleague, Sujit Bose, who had served as Fire Services Minister in the previous government.
Bose was taken into custody on the night of May 11 after being questioned for nearly ten hours at the same Salt Lake office. He was produced before a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on May 12, and the judge remanded him to ED custody until May 21.
Following a directive from the Calcutta High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also launched a parallel inquiry into the municipality recruitment case. Both agencies, the ED on the money laundering angle and the CBI on the criminal side, have since been working simultaneously on the matter.
As the investigation deepened, the names of several individuals with significant political standing began cropping up. These include state ministers and senior leaders from the party.