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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the contents of a “maroon diary” and some registers purportedly containing the details of illegal transactions as part of the alleged ration scam in West Bengal, according to the remand letter submitted by the agency in a Kolkata court on Friday. The central agency had on Friday arrested state Forest Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick (65), who held the food and civil supplies portfolio from 2011 to 2021, on charges of money laundering in the case after interrogating him for nearly 20 hours while conducting searches on properties belonging to him and his associates and secured his 10-day remand from the court.
The ED claimed that the diary mentions the names of “MIC (minister in-charge) Jyoti Priya Mallick, popularly known as Balu da, three shell companies through which the money was laundered, and NPG Rice Mills”. “The pages of the diary clearly indicate that the money was received by Mallick and it was deposited in the accounts of companies,” the agency said in its remand letter.
When contacted, Mallick’s lawyer Shyamal Kumar Ghosh refused to comment. TMC MP Santanu Sen said, “The country is already questioning the credibility and neutrality of the BJP government (at the Centre). Ninety-six percent of the politicians the ED is targeting are Opposition leaders.” Also, under the ED’s scanner are mobile phones of some people close to the minister and his staff, sources said.
The agency has claimed in the remand letter that the diary and the other documents reveal how money believed to be the proceeds of crime was laundered and who the beneficiaries of the monetary transactions were. Several transactions corroborate a close proximity between minister Mallick and businessman Bakibur Rahaman who was earlier arrested in the case, it added. The diary, which according to sources was seized from the Howarh residence of Mallick’s former chartered accountant (CA) Abhijit Das who was also questioned by the investigators in the case, has the details of date-wise receipts and payments of cash in large amounts.
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The diary and the registers are likely to play a crucial role in the agency’s investigation, officials said. “Rice mills delivered 20-40% less wheat flour to the government distributors who got payments in cash for this. As a result, 20-40% of the wheat flour was siphoned off. This wheat flour was then sold in the open market and the sale proceeds were shared between the distributors and millers in the ratio of 80:20,” the ED said in the letter.
Some registers have month-wise details of wheat and wheat flour with cash payments made to various distributors, the agency said. “The PDS ration meant for targeted beneficiaries was siphoned off by the flour millers in connivance with distributors and other people in the supply chain. The proceeds of sales from the open market worth crores of rupees were deposited in the bank accounts of three shell firms under the garb of bogus share premiums and commission from foodgrain trading. Subsequently, these companies were liquidated. These firms had no real business as they were incorporated only for laundering the proceeds of crime,” the ED’s remand letter read. Mallick, who was admitted to a private hospital on Friday after his arrest, is under treatment after he fainted in court.
On Sunday, the minister’s daughter Priyadarshini Mallick visited the ED office in Kolkata. Sources said she was asked to furnish details related to the family’s income and expenditure.
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