Top Stories

ED Raids Suppliers And Exporters In West Bengal PDS Scam Ahead Of Final Poll Phase



NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday searched several locations in poll-bound West Bengal as part of its money-laundering investigation into an alleged public distribution system scam. The searches were conducted at about nine premises of suppliers and exporters in Kolkata, Burdwan, and Habra, officials said. The action, following a similar exercise earlier, is being carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED had previously arrested former food minister Jyoti Priya Mallick and some others in this case. The state is scheduled to go for the second and final phase of the Assembly polls on April 29 after the first phase on April 23. The money-laundering case stems from an October 2020 FIR registered by the Basirhat police on the complaint of a deputy commissioner of customs (land customs station) at Ghojadanga, alleging large-scale diversion of PDS wheat meant for welfare schemes. The wheat was procured at low prices through unauthorized channels, in collusion with suppliers, licensed distributors, dealers, and middlemen. Large quantities were illegally diverted from the supply chain and aggregated at multiple locations, the ED has claimed. To conceal its origin, the accused removed or reversed the original gunny bags bearing Food Corporation of India and state government markings and refilled them, thereby hiding identifying features and passing off the PDS wheat as legitimate stock for sale in the open market or export, it had said.



Source link

You Missed

Scroll to Top