Former West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mallick was granted bail on Wednesday in connection with the alleged public distribution system (PDS) scam. The ED sessions court granted conditional bail to Mallick, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in October 2023 as part of a money-laundering investigation related to the multi-crore scam.
The court mandated that Mallick, 67, must fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation and refrain from influencing witnesses. His bail was granted on the condition that he provide two bail bonds of Rs 25,000 each and a personal bond of Rs 50 lakh.
The ED opposed his bail, arguing that Mallick was the central figure in the alleged scam, referring to him as the “ringmaster”. They claimed that all corrupt activities in the scam, such as diverting subsidised PDS rations for open market sales, were linked to him.
In court, Mallick’s lawyers argued for his release, citing the bail granted to three other accused in the alleged scam, named Bakibur Rahman, Biswajit Das and Shankar Adhya as a precedent.
The special ED court judge, while granting bail to Mallick, noted that while the investigation is still underway and the trial is unlikely to begin in the near future, there is no necessity to keep the former minister in custody.
With no other cases pending against him apart from the one filed by the ED, Mallick was released from jail on Wednesday evening after 13 months of detention. However, he is restricted from leaving West Bengal without the court’s permission and must submit his passport.
