The Enforcement Directorate (ED), a day later of conducting
search operation, arrested West Bengal Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick in
case linked to an alleged ration distribution scam on Friday.
The probe agency raided three properties belonging to
Mallick in Kolkata.
Mallick has been arrested in a money laundering case
related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which added that he
would be produced in a court later in the day.
The alleged West Bengal ration distribution scam
pertains to alleged irregularities in the public distribution system and in
distribution of food grains during the Covid lockdowns.
The ED reached the ancestral house of Mallick on
Amherst Street in central Kolkata and two other houses belonging to him in
Kolkata’s Salt Lake area on Thursday.
Mallick holds the Forests portfolio in Trinamool
Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s
cabinet.
Following the ED raids, Mamata said that Mallick was
ill and she would file police cases against the ED and Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) if something happened to Mallick. She also termed the raids as “a dirty
political game” by the BJP.
A number of Opposition leaders, including some from
the TMC, are under the scanner of central investigative agencies like the ED
and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Opposition has for a long time alleged that cases
filed against these leaders are politically motivated at the behest of ruling
BJP.
PTI
