After their arrest, the Opposition criticised the corruption allegedly prevalent among the Trinamool leadership. File.
Trinamool Congress Deganga block president Anisur Rahman and his brother and party associate Alif Noor were arrested on Friday (August 2) in connection with the West Bengal ration scam case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials arrested them after a marathon 15-hour interrogation.
The ED officials also conducted extensive searches at properties belonging to the two men. Around โน1.5 crore was reportedly traced back to the two brothers in terms of unaccounted-for cash and bank transactions. Officials said that the brothers did not provide any concrete answers for the source of the money or its destination.
After their arrest, the Opposition criticised the corruption allegedly prevalent among the Trinamool leadership. BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar said that the money that was retrieved was the common manโs money which the Trinamool had โscammedโ. โHow much more assets and money they have, we do not know. TMC leaders like Jyotipriya Mallick were using small-time workers like Anisur and Alif to circulate the black money in the market and make it white. The money source should be found through investigation,โ he added.
Mr. Majumdar also said that he had complete faith in the ED investigation and Indiaโs law and order system, so he was sure that all the accused in the scam would get the justice they deserved. โThe people want strong actions against these people,โ he added.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Shatarup Ghosh said he had doubts about the ED CBI investigations into the various โscamsโ in West Bengal. โWe have been seeing Central investigation bodies doing this in the State since 2014 but they have not closed a single case to date. How is it possible that they have a 100% failure rate to strike? Investigations go on for years,โ he remarked while speaking to The Hindu.
However, Mr. Ghosh also pointed out that Mr. Rahman and Mr. Noorโs arrest was just the tip of the iceberg. โThe whole TMC leadership is corrupt. Jyotipriya Mallick had an asset of โน5 lakh in 2006, โน80 lakh in 2011, โน1.5 crore in 2016. How? This money came from the scams. Even his daughter Priyadarshini Mallick had assets worth โน4.5 crore when she is a tuition teacher,โ he pointed out.
He said that food and education were the two basics of life, and the common man looked up to the leadership of the State for these two things; yet, both former Ministers of education and food, Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Mallick, were in jail. He pointed out that multiple Trinamool leaders and Ministers being in jail pointed to not just financial corruption in the party but also showcaseed moral corruption in its leadership.
Former Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool spokesperson Santanu Sen told The Hindu that people like Mr. Rahman and Mr. Noor were born during the CPI(M) era and not particularly during their time. โBut we still want a complete investigation into the matter and have zero tolerance towards any kind of corruption in TMC. We want action taken against anyone involved in corruption, even if they are from our own party. This is unheard of in BJP-ruled States or even during the CPI(M) era in West Bengal,โ he said.
The ED officials had earlier said that the immensity of the PDS scam in West Bengal was anywhere between โน9,000-10,000 crore. They also said they suspected that โน2,000 crore of this money had been transferred to Dubai either directly or through Bangladesh.
