Former food and supplies minister of the Mamata Banerjee government, Jyotipriya Mullick, was remanded in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for a further period of seven days, ensuring that that minister, accused of being the “kingpin” of the state’s ration distribution scam, would have the Central Government Office Complex in Salt Lake housing the agency’s office as his temporary address for another week to be grilled by the probe officers. He will be produced before the court again on November 13.
Mullick, the current forest minister who screamed “I am innocent” in the corruption imbroglio to the waiting media persons at the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court (Bankshall Court) premises where he was produced for a remand hearing and said he was already “free” since “the ED has now realized his innocence after spending 11 days with him”, interestingly, did not even move his bail application in court. “I will meet you again after a week,” Mullick said while leaving the court premises later, sounding contradictory to what he said before.
Inside the courtroom, the accused minister sat in rapt attention listening to the submissions of the prosecution and defense lawyers. Unlike in the previous occasion, Mullick displayed no signs of physical discomfiture in court.
The developments took place on a day Mullick’s former Personal Assistant Abhijit Das made a damning claim about the minister stating his wife and mother, Sukanya and Mamata Das respectively, were made directors of three discredited bogus companies on instructions of the former food minister. The ED has alleged that the three companies, Hanuman Realcon Pvt Ltd, Gracious Innovative Pvt Ltd and Gracious Creation Pvt Ltd, all having the same address of an apartment on Jessore Road and indirectly controlled by Bakibur Rahaman, one of the prime accused in the scam, was used to launder Rs 12.06 crores of ration scam money. Incidentally, Mullick’s wife and daughter too were stakeholders in those companies, the ED had claimed.
Das, who served as Mullick’s PA from 2011-2014, appeared before the agency for the sixth time on Monday and submitted additional documents to the ED in connection with the investigation. “I had no idea about the transactions that took place from those companies and was only told that the minister would do business. The minister instructed me to put the names of my wife and mother as directors and I had little choice but to agree.” Das claimed that his relatives had resigned from the companies after he had quit his job in Mullick’s department.
In an additional interesting development, the ED arrested Dipak Chandak, a director of Ankit India Limited, one of the companies at which the agency carried out marathon search and seizure operations for the past few days. Chandak was also an accused in the 1996 fodder scam in Lalu Yadav’s Bihar and was released from custody after he turned approver. Chandak’s arrest led to fervent speculations in the media as to whether the alleged corruptions of Lalu and Balu (Mullick’s nickname) were inextricably linked.
Meanwhile, the ED moved the remand application before Bisakha Chowdhury, the 18th Metropolitan Magistrate and the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in-charge, and prayed for a seven-day custody on grounds that of the previous remand ordered by the court for 10 days, the minister spent three days in hospital. Adding another four days to its remand prayer, the agency ensured that it received its maximum remand period for the accused minister which the court, subsequently, obliged.
Told about the minister’s claim to “innocence” before entering the court lock-up, an ED officer smiled and asked: “Why would we then pray for further custody?”
The agency submitted in court that Mullick’s health condition is currently being supervised by the Command Hospital although it couldn’t confirm whether the hospital has formed a medical board for the purpose as directed in the previous court order. The issue was raised by Mullick’s defense lawyers who wanted to place on record on whether or not the hospital complied with the court order. The Command Hospital, on its part, had previously moved the CMM’s court stating it was already over-stretched with its existing duties of treating defense personnel and did not have resources to treat civilians. Following the no-interference stand of the court, it has now moved Calcutta High Court with the same plea and the matter is likely to be taken up for hearing on Wednesday, November 8.
Nripati Majumder, an advocate and member of the Calcutta High Court Bar Library, submitted before the CMM in-charge that the minister was “victim of political rivalry”. “We are concerned about the minister’s health and appeal to the court to include in its order that the investigation process should be expedited,” he stated. Mullick’s advocates on record, however, maintained that their client had no such submission.
Speaking at a Bijoya Sammelani public meet-and-greet programme at her Bhowanipur constituency, chief minister Mamata Banerjee passed the corruption buck on to the court of the erstwhile Left Front regime. “We are facing the legacy of 34 years of Left rule in Bengal who pumped in over one crore fake ration cards. It took us seven-eight years to clean that mess and digitize all the ration cards. Those fake ration card holders were the CPM’s false voters,” Banerjee said while calling the latest corruption disclosures “individual problem”.
“Show me one eligible beneficiary who doesn’t get rice from ration shops,” the chief minister said. Referring to her entitled salary and MP pension which she doesn’t accept, Banerjee said: “I took nothing and yet they call me thief. The real thieves are the ones throwing atta at the police’s face.”
Using the opportunity to take a dig at Prime Minister Modi, albeit without naming him, Banerjee said: “I don’t need publicity by naming a stadium after me. I am happy leading the life of a decent human being.”
