West Bengal Forest Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick being produced before a court in Kolkata on October 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday, October 27, 2023, arrested West Bengal Minister Jyoti Priya Mullick in a case relating to irregularities in the State’s public distribution system (PDS). Mr. Mullick was arrested in the early hours of Friday after the central investigation agency held raids on eight of his properties for nearly 20 hours.
“ I am a victim of a conspiracy,” Mr. Mullick told journalists as he was being taken by the ED from his residence at Salt Lake in North 24 Parganas to ED office in Kolkata in the early hours of Friday. Later on Friday morning when the Minister was taken for a medical check up, he blamed the BJP and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari for his arrest.
The Minister who was in charge of the State’s Food and Supplies Department is the second sitting minister to be arrested by the ED . In June 2022, ED had arrested former State’s Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in the school job recruitment scam. Several MLAs of the ruling party as well as officials of the Stater Education Department are behind bars for their involvement in the school job scam
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Thursday decried ED raids on the properties of Mr. Mullick. “Jyoti Priya Mallick is unwell. I will lodge an FIR against the ED and the BJP if anything happens to him during the raids,” the Trinamool Congress chairperson had said.
The case in which the Minister has been arrested dates back to 2020-21 when FIRs relating to irregularities in the public distribution system were registered at a few in the police stations of the State.
After investigation by state police the ED took up the matter. Last week the ED had arrested businessman Bakibur Rehman in connection with the same case. The ED has found properties valuing about ₹100 crore in the name of Bakibur Rahman, who is said to be very close to the Minister.