Arrested in the public distribution system scam, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shankar Adhya is directly or indirectly linked to 90 foreign currency exchange agencies and around ₹1,000 crore is suspected to have been siphoned out of India only through one of these, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed before a Kolkata court on Saturday.
ED officials suspect that the total scam involves around ₹20,000 crore.
ED told the court on Saturday that its findings are based on evidence found after Adhya, a former chairman of the Bongaon municipality in North 24 Parganas district, was arrested on January 6, an official of the federal agency said on condition of anonymity.
Arvind Singh, an accountant who worked for Adhya, provided some vital information when he was questioned, the court was told.
“The court was also told that Adhya is an accused in several old cases. The charges range from murder to smuggling of fake Indian currency notes (FICN). The court extended Adhya’s judicial custody by 14 days,” a lawyer who was present at the hearing said, requesting anonymity.
ED earlier claimed that Adhya is a close associate of former food minister Jyotipriya Mallick who was arrested on October 27 last year.
{{/usCountry}}ED earlier claimed that Adhya is a close associate of former food minister Jyotipriya Mallick who was arrested on October 27 last year.
{{/usCountry}}On January 17, the Calcutta high court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the West Bengal police to trace Sheikh Shahjahan, a TMC leader from North 24 Parganas district’s Sandeshkhali who allegedly masterminded the January 5 attack on ED officials during a raid at his residence in connection with the PDS scam.
Shahjahan could not be traced till Sunday evening.
The alleged ₹20,000 crore scam, in which subsidised food grains meant for the PDS system were siphoned to the open market for sale, took place when Mallick was West Bengal’s food minister between 2011 (when the TMC came to power for the first time) and 2021.
On December 12, ED filed its first chargesheet in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) naming Mallick, rice mill owner and hotelier Bakibur Rahaman and 10 shell companies.
Rahaman, who was arrested on October 14, was a key player in the siphoning operation in which his warehouses were used, ED said in the chargesheet.
ED also told the court that Mallick made his wife, Manidipa, and daughter, Priyadarshini, and some personal staff directors of three shell companies that were shut down in 2022 and 2023 to wipe out evidence.
No TMC leader commented on the ED’s claims regarding Adhya.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) however reacted saying an operation of such large scale could not have been pulled off only by leaders of Adhya’s stature.
“A former municipality chairman or a minister cannot siphon thousands of crores of rupees out of the country unless they are helped by heavyweight leaders,” said Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.