Ration meant for targeted beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System (PDS) in West Bengal was ‘siphoned off in an unethical but organised manner’ and that minister Jyoti Priya Mallick used three shell companies for laundering the proceeds of crime, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed in its submission in a Kolkata court in the alleged ration scam in the state.
In its remand letter, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, the central agency alleged that the minister, who currently holds the Forest portfolio and was in charge of Food and Civil Supplies from 2011 to 2021, ‘knowingly committed the offence of money laundering’ with the help of businessman Bakibur Rahman, who was earlier arrested in the case.
The diversion of ration involved stakeholders in the PDS supply chain, including four millers, PDS distributors, dealers, and other private individuals, the agency claimed.
The PDS wheat flour from NPG Rice Mill in North 24 Parganas district was continuously siphoned off and a huge sum of money was laundered to the companies of Mallick and others through Bakibur Rahman, it further said.
Searches and seizures, and statements of different people revealed that Mallick laundered the proceeds of crime through ‘diversion of PDS ration to the open market’, it said.
The ED said that the minister’s wife Manidipa Mallick and daughter Priyadarshini Mallick first denied having any association with Gracious Creation Private Limited, Gracious Innovative Private Limited, and Shree Hanuman Realcon Private Limited.
‘But when stamps of these three companies were found during a search at their residence, they shifted the blame on Avijit Dey who earlier worked as an assistant to the minister. Jyoti Priya Mallick, his wife and their daughter couldn’t give a satisfactory reply to as why Manidipa and Priyadarshini were directors of the three companies,’ the remand letter read. When confronted with ‘aforesaid facts’ on October 23, Bakibur Rahman stated that he arranged these funds for acquiring these companies in the form of loan on the minister’s request, it added.
The agency also quoted Rahman as claiming that the minister was the ‘beneficiary’ of these companies as the loan had not been returned by him till date.
‘On the perusal of the seized material and the statements of various persons recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA, it was found that the proceeds of crime obtained from the open market sale of the PDS ration were laundered through various persons and shell entities namely Shree Hanuman Realcon Private Limited, Gracious Creation Private Limited, and Gracious Innovative Private Limited,’ the letter read.
ED lawyer Edulji Phiroze said, ‘As per his affidavit for the state Assembly elections filed in 2016, Jyoti Priya Mallick declared Rs 45,000 cash in hand for his spouse. But within a span of one year, Rs 6 crore was deposited in her bank account.’
The agency also referred to TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya (arrested in the alleged school job scam) saying that the modus operandi in all these cases was the same. The minister’s chartered accountant confirmed that everything was done on Mallick’s instructions, it further claimed.
