New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed that its probe has found that the West Bengal public distribution scam far exceeds £1 billion, and the ‘proceeds of crime’ were laundered to Dubai and other foreign destinations by the prime accused, including former food minister Jyoti Priya Mallick.
ED attached 48 more properties with a market value of over £15 mn (book value £5 mn), including residences of Mallick in Salt Lake and Bolpur. Mallick, arrested by ED in October last year, is in judicial custody along with his associates.
ED has also approached the special PMLA court in Kolkata to confiscate at least 101 properties attached in the scam. Mallick was food minister in Mamata Banerjee’s govt before he was arrested. He was allegedly assisted by rice miller Bakibur Rahaman and money changer Sankar Addhya.
Two hotels in the name of Rahaman in Bengaluru and several in Kolkata are among benami properties attached.
The ED probe, initiated on the basis of FIRs lodged by Bengal police, found that various private persons were found in unauthorised possession of ration meant for delivery through PDS.
These rice and flour millers were also found to be involved in bogus procurement of paddy and were engaged in siphoning off PDS ration to the open market, mixing of old wheat flour in fresh flour meant for PDS distribution and bogus paddy procurement at MSP, the agency said.
