Amount involved in Bengal ration case much higher than other scams: ED

Kolkata, Dec 19 (IANS) An Enforcement Directorate (ED) internal assessment has revealed that the total amount involved in the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal might be much higher that the other financial scams in the state.

ED officials in Kolkata probing the different money laundering cases in West Bengal had forwarded an internal report to the agency’s national headquarters in New Delhi, sources said.

The report mentioned that the arrested Kolkata-based businessman Bakibur Rahman alone had made an earning to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore from the alleged ration distribution case.

The sources said that the probe agency officials were baffled over the entire size of the scam given that Rahman's earning alone from the alleged scam was so huge.

As of now, the ED sleuths have only calculated only a part of the entire scam.

The sources added that the entire amount garnered by Rahman, through different avenues, was during the 10-year period between 2011 and 2021, when the arrested West Bengal Minister Jyotipriya Mallick held the Food & Supplies portfolio.

Mallick is currently admitted at the state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata.

ED officials will include all these details of calculations in the second charge sheet which will be filed in the near future.

In its first charge sheet, the ED said that as per initial estimates the total loss in the exchequer of the West Bengal government due to the ration distribution case will around Rs 400 crore.

It also mentioned that this initial estimate of Rs 400 crore is just related to the loss in state exchequer and not the entire fiscal size of the scam.