• Jyotipriya Mullick remanded in ED custody till November 6
  
• Accused minister Jyotipriya Mullick falls ill during the course of his remand hearing at the Bankshall court in Calcutta

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mullick in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-core ration distribution scam in the state, official sources said on Friday.

The minister was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the early hours of Friday following over 17 to 18 hours of questioning, they said.

He will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his custody.

“I am a victim of grave conspiracy. This is all I have to say for now. The BJP did a fine job of trapping me, ” said Mullick while he was escorted away by ED officials and CRPF jawans from his home in Salt Lake to the ED office in the Salt Lake CGO complex.

Later, on his way to the ESI Hospital in Joka from the ED office for his mandatory health check up, Mullick was more specific in his allegation: “I am a victim of conspiracy hatched by the BJP and Suvendu Adhikari.”

ED officials claimed that incriminating evidence was recovered from his BC 244 and BC 245 properties in Salt Lake which were among the several premises raided by the agency on Thursday morning.

The central agency had launched searches at Mullick's premises on Thursday. It also searched his ancestral house on Amherst Street in central Calcutta. The alleged scam pertains to reported irregularities in the public distribution system and in distribution of food grains during the Covid lockdowns.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee stood beside Mullick and had lashed out at the BJP and the central agencies on Thursday while threatening to lodge FIRs against them if the raids impacted the minister's health.

While this is the first arrest of a minister in connection with the multi-crore rupees scam, the irregularities involve selling of food grains meant for supply through the public distribution system at premium rates open market allegedly by a syndicated section of ration dealers and distributors enjoying the patronage of a section of Trinamul Congress leaders and influencers.

Mullick's name surfaced for his alleged proximity to Bakibur Rahaman, a rice mill owner who was arrested by the ED on October 14 in connection with ration distribution irregularities and was found to have amassed wealth to the tune of over Rs 100 crores.

Once remanded in custody by the court, the minister may now be made to sit face to face with Rahaman and quizzed about the modus operandi of the alleged corruption and details of the trail of the siphoned off money, it was learned from ED sources.

“The Kingpin of the Ration Scam has finally been caught. The Truth will always prevail...” posted Sukanta Majumdar on his verified X handle.

Adhikari, on the other hand, was far more sarcastic. Naming top TMC leaders and ministers currently in jail, Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya, Jiban Krishna Saha and Jyotipriyo Mullick, alongside their date of arrests, the Leader of Opposition wrote: “It seems that meetings of the state cabinet and the legislative assembly sessions will now have to be convened in jails.”