Ration distribution scam: Over Rs 20,000 cr was embezzled, claims ED

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday claimed that West Bengal’s ration distribution scam involves a massive embezzlement of money amounting to a staggering Rs 20,000 crore. The central probe agency reportedly revealed the sum in a Kolkata court on Saturday. It is being said that the amount was siphoned off on account of sale of foreign currencies without proper documentation.

The latest revelation has come up after the ED officials were attacked by a large violent mob in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas on Friday, while they were on their to conduct raids at TMC leader Shahjahan’s residence.

Sources claimed that during the investigation, it came to fore that approximately Rs 20,000 crore were deposited in bank accounts on account of sale of foreign currencies without proper documentation.

Over 2000 crores were transferred to Dubai by means of forex trade, claims ED

It was also found that around Rs 10,000 crore belonging to jailed West Bengal Minister Jyotipriya Mallick was converted to foreign currencies, sources further claimed.

During the investigation, it was further disclosed that around 2000 crores were transferred through illegal means to Dubai, either directly or via Bangladesh by means of forex trade.

The agency made all the claims during the remand hearing of Shankar Addhya, the former chairman of Bongaon Municipality and a close aide of the arrested minister who was arrested from his residence and produced in the court on Saturday.

According to the officials of the central agency, the jaw-dropping scam amount is likely to further grow as the investigation proceeds. The ED submitted that Addhya was directly responsible for laundering money to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore using foreign currency trading and exchange through the border areas of the state and that about half of that amount came from the misappropriated ration distribution scam.

Meanwhile, Addhya, on his part, claimed in the court that he possessed the necessary no objection certificate (NOC) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to carry out forex trade. He countered the ED’s claim by saying that during the search operation, cash amounting to only Rs 8 lakh was found on him.

However, keeping aside Addhya’s claim, the court remanded him to ED’s custody for 14 days. The accused will be produced before the court on January 20.

At a time when central investigating agencies, especially the ED, were focused on identifying laundered money trails using shell company operation modules, the new route of money transfer by means of forex trade certainly opened up a whole new dimension to the murky business of alleged corruption in the state.

The central agency also revealed that the names of both Shankar Addhya and Sahajahan Sheikh, whose search operation triggered unprecedented violence against the officials, came under ED’s scanner, when a handwritten letter from arrested minister Jyotipriya Mallick was intercepted by CRPF jawans and handed over to the agency.

It is being claimed that Mallick wrote a letter from the hospital in Kolkata, where he currently remains admitted, and hand-delivered it to his daughter Priyadarshini, during her visit on December 16.

The letter was seized from his daughter by the CRPF personnel and subsequently handed over to the ED. The agency maintained that the letter had a list of several names with specific amounts against each of them which the minister wanted transacted.