The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday night arrested West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress leader Jyotipriya Mallick in the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam.
"West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick has been arrested by ED in connection with an alleged case of corruption in rationing distribution," the agency stated in an official release.
Mallick was arrested at 3.23 am on Friday. While being escorted by the ED officials and CRPF jawans from his home in Salt Lake to the ED office in the CGO complex, the minister told reporters that he was the "victim of a grave conspiracy".
The arrest came hours after the central agency conducted raids at the residences of Mallick and eight others in connection with the scam. The ED officials searched the minister's Salt Lake flats and the residence of Mallick’s personal assistant Amit Dey in Nagerbazar in the North 24 Paraganas district.
The agency is probing Mallick’s links to businessman Bakibur Rahman, who was recently arrested in the case. Rahman, who owns several hotels, resorts and bars, is alleged to have made an investment of over Rs 50 crore in the companies. ED sources said over 100 documents with stamps of government offices were found in his flat.
TMC chief and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had termed the raids as "a dirty political game" and questioned the "atrocities, lawlessness going on". Banerjee said the BJP was playing a dirty game ahead of the elections. "I want to ask whether there has been a single such raid at any BJP leader's residence?" she questioned.
The chief minister also threatened to file a police case against the BJP and ED if anything happened to Mallick during the searches at his residences in Kolkata. "Jyotipriya Mallick is unwell. I will lodge an FIR if anything happens to him during the ED raids," Banerjee said.
Banerjee is yet to respond to the arrest.
Mallick is the third TMC leader to be arrested by the ED this year. The agency had arrested former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee in connection with the teachers' recruitment scam. TMC's Burbhum district president Anubrata Mondal also been arrested earlier in connection with a cattle smuggling case in May.