Bengal ration distribution case: ED prepares list of officers as suspected beneficiaries

Kolkata, Nov 1 (IANS) After netting the former West Bengal food & supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mallick in relation to the multi- crore ration distribution case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are now zeroing in on a number of present and former officers of the same department perceived to be beneficiaries in the alleged scam.

Sources said that the central agency sleuths have already started the process of preparing the list of such officers to be summoned and questioned in the matter. The names of such officers, sources added, surfaced in several documents seized by the ED sleuths during their raid and search operations as well the statements given by those already interrogated by them like the arrested businessman Bakibur Rahman and the minister’s former personal assistant Abhijit Das.

The ED sleuths first sensed the involvement of the high and mighty in the state food & supplies department after they seized multiple state government seals, all attached to the department, from the office of Bakibur Rahman.

The state government seals recovered from his office include those of West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation Limited as well as those of chief inspector, district food supply officers, sub-inspector of state food & supplies department.

Meanwhile, during the first day of his ED custody on Tuesday, the minister during the course of interrogation was in a quite non- cooperation mode, as he tried to avoid all questions in the pretexts of either denying any knowledge or not being able to recollect the sequence of events, said sources. 

He was specially questioned about the functioning of the state food & supplies department between 2017 and 2019, the period believed to be when the irregularities related to ration distribution were at peak, the sources said.

Mallick was the state food & supplies minister from 2011 and 2021. However, after the 2021 state Assembly elections his portfolio was changed and he was made the state forest minister.