The Enforcement Directorate arrested former Bongaon municipality chairman Shankar Addya early on Saturday for his alleged involvement in irregularities in the distribution of ration supplies.
An alleged close aide of arrested former food and civil services minister Jyotipriya Mallik, Addya was rounded up at the end of nearly 17 hours of questioning at his home in Shimultala, Bongaon, almost 78km from the heart of Kolkata.
Later in the day, the ED told Bankshall court, where Addya was produced, that around Rs 20,000 crore had been exchanged through money changer agencies that Addya allegedly owned. Out of this, about Rs 10,000 crore was from alleged irregularities in the public distribution system (PDS), the ED told the court.
Addya owns 19 foreign exchange agencies, most of which are located along the Bangladesh border in Bongaon. Around Rs 2,000 crore was sent abroad through some of these agencies, the ED said.
Lawyers representing Addya countered saying the foreign exchange agencies were involved in transactions that followed the laws. There was nothing illegal about the business, they argued.
The judge sent him to 14 days of ED custody.
“I have confidence in the investigating officers. The investigation will require time,” Addya said on his way out of the court in the evening.
Popularly known as Daku, Addya joined politics alongside Mallik and first became a councillor of Bongaon municipality in 2005.
Addya’s wife Jyotsna also later became the municipality’s chairperson while he controlled party affairs in the region.
Over the years, Addya built a hotel, a jewellery shop, a school in his father’s name and went on to acquire a market in Bongaon.
“In 2021, Addya aspired to be the Trinamul candidate from Bongaon constituency but the party denied him a ticket,” said a senior party leader in North 24-Parganas. “After the electoral setback in Bongaon, the party relieved him of all responsibilities.”
Lawyers representing the ED told the court that Addya’s name surfaced from a chit that the CRPF found from Mallik’s daughter while she was leaving SSKM Hospital after visiting her arrested father, now undergoing treatment.
The chit, recovered on December 16, mentioned several names from whom money had to be gathered, and included Addya’s, an ED lawyer said.
Early on Friday, an ED team turned up to question Addya at his home. Separate ED teams conducted search and seizure operations at Addya’s in-laws’ place in Bongaon, at the Gaighata residence of his brother Malay and even raided the latter’s ice cream manufacturing factory.
In Kolkata, another team visited Addya’s chartered account’s office in Baghajatin and the house of his aide, off EM Bypass.
Early on Saturday, as ED officers made their way out of Addya’s home, over 100 supporters attempted to thwart the team from taking away with their leader. CRPF personnel accompanying the ED team resorted to lathi charge. The mob pelted stones at the probe team.
“There are reasons to believe that he was one of the beneficiaries of the irregularities in the ration distribution scam in North 24-Parganas. The accused continued to evade questions and didn’t cooperate during interrogation,” said an ED official.