On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted massive raids and search operations in at least 14 locations in West Bengal in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case.
Sources said most of the places where the different teams of ED officials were conducting 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.
ED officials are also interrogating the 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.
Sources said the other places where the ED officials are conducting raids and search operations are mainly the residences and shops of different PDS dealers who have been under the ED’s scanner 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 Trinamool 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’ close association with the former state Food and Supplies Minister Jyoti Priya 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.
–IANS
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