The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started to interrogate arrested minister Jyoti Priya Mallick on Tuesday on the alleged ration scam during his tenure as food and supplies minister.

Mallick has been lodged in a cell at the office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, with two personnel from the central reserve forces and one from the state armed police deputed for his security, sources in the ED said.

The cell, with a bed and basic facilities, will be the home for the current forest minister for the next nine days in the custody of the central agency probing the alleged PDS irregularities, sources said.

Trinamul veteran Mallick was Bengal’s food and supplies minister from 2011 to 2021.

A diabetic with several other ailments, Mallick, 66, has been allotted a separate room for interrogation.

A team led by the investigating officer of the case started questioning Mallick. Other officers took down notes.

Senior ED officers said Mallick was not yet forthcoming during the interrogation.

“We need to know the trail of the proceeds of crime following irregularities in rations supplies across the state. However, the minister hasn’t been quite forthcoming. We do expect him to cooperate with us,” said a senior ED officer on Tuesday.

ED sources said they collected data from bank accounts of those believed to be close to Mallick to understand how the money changed hands.

Presenting its case in court, the ED said on Friday that there were reasons to believe that the proceeds of crime — from alleged irregularities in the ration distribution system — travelled from three shell companies of now-arrested rice mill owner Bakibur Rahaman to Mallick. The ED's lawyer said that Rahaman admitted in custody that Rs 8 crore was offered to Mallick as a loan from these three companies and the sum wasn't repaid.

A Calcutta-based businessman with roots in North 24-Parganas district, Rahaman was arrested two weeks back. He allegedly amassed assets close to Rs 100 crore when Mallick was both the food and supplies minister and Trinamul district chief in North 24-Parganas.

Senior ED officers said documents with them revealed two of Rahaman’s companies were incorporated in March 2006 and the third in March 2008. All three companies were closed in 2016.

“Among several things, we would like to know from the minister why the sum allegedly received as loan was not returned,” the officer said.

The minister on Tuesday was served cream cracker biscuits and bread with tea for breakfast, followed by rice, pulses, chappaties and a mixed vegetable dish for lunch, sources said. ED officers are taking care that he gets his medicines on time.