The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick on Friday in case related to an alleged ration distribution scam, reported PTI.
Mallick's arrest came after almost daylong searches that began on Thursday morning. The ED raided three properties belonging to Mallick in Kolkata.
Mallick has been arrested in a money laundering case related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), reported PTI, which added that he would be produced in a court later in the day.
The alleged West Bengal ration distribution scam pertains to alleged irregularities in the public distribution system and in distribution of food grains during the Covid-19 lockdowns, reported PTI.
The ED on Thursday reached the ancestral house of Mallick on Amherst Street in central Kolkata and two other houses belonging to him in Kolkata's Salt Lake area. Mallick holds the forests portfolio in Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's cabinet.
Following the ED raids, Mamata on Thursday said that Mallick was ill and she would file police cases against the ED and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) if something happened to Mallick. She also termed the raids as "a dirty political game" by the BJP.
A number of Opposition leaders, including some from the TMC, are under the scanner of central investigative agencies like the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Opposition has for a long time alleged that cases filed against these leaders are politically motivated at the behest of ruling BJP.
