When the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out raids across West Bengal — including on the premises of state Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick and his aides in connection with the alleged ration/PDS system scam — it followed a long sequence of the central agency probes and raids against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and ministers in various cases over the past two years. The ED's latest raids leading to Mallick' arrest early on Friday has opened another front in the central agencies' probes into various alleged scams involving the TMC dispensation, starting with the ones in the recruitment of school teachers and municipal employees as well as smuggling of cattle and coal. The current round of probes actually began on April 24, when the CBI, on the directions of Calcutta High Court, registered a case in connection with an alleged scam in recruitments in various municipalities, district primary school councils, etc. According to the CBI, all contracts for the recruitment of Group C and D employees in these bodies were allegedly given to a single company. Earlier, while probing cases of cattle smuggling, the ED had identified irregularities in the operation of rice mills. Preliminary probe led the agency into irregularities in the procurement of rice and wheat by the state government's food department. That brought the government's rationing system into the purview of the central probe agencies. This led the ED to Bakibur Rahaman, the owner of NPG Rice Mill in North 24 Parganas. He was arrested on October 18 from his residence at Kaikhali on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata after ED carried out search operations for three days at over a dozen locations in Nadia and North 24 Parganas, including rice and flour mills, a three-star hotel and a bar owned by Rahaman. According to ED officials, his arrest lifted the veil over the story of his rapid rise. From one rice mill in 2004, he had become owner of three more companies within the next two years, with two of them being the real estate firms. All of this was happening during the CPI(M)-led Left Front rule in the state. In 2011, the TMC came to power with party supremo Mamata Banerjee taking over as the Chief Minister. By 2020, Rahaman had become the director of at least 13 companies. ED officials say they are probing shell companies Rahaman had allegedly opened to siphon off money, having so far identified an unaccounted stash of Rs 50 crore that was allegedly invested in these companies. The agency also found a fleet of luxury cars, such as Porsches and BMWs during the raids on his premises. According to the CBI and ED, those raids pointed fingers not only at state Mullick, who was the food minister during the “scam” period, but at several other leaders and ministers of the TMC. Already on October 5, the ED had raided several properties in and around Kolkata, including the Madhyamgram residence of current Food and Supplies Minister Rathin Ghosh, albeit as part of its investigation into an alleged civic body recruitment scam case. Ghosh, the former chairman of Madhyamgram municipality, is accused of involvement in a scam to recruit ineligible candidates for government jobs. That same day, an ED team also raided TMC leader Gopal Saha’s house in Kamarhati. Saha is the current chairman of Kamarhati Municipality. These raids on 13 locations also involved the houses of several municipal chairmen and other civic officials in Dum Dum, Baranagar, Titagarh and Madhyamgram, which are located on the outskirts of Kolkata in North 24 Parganas district. Incidentally, they followed days after the TMC held a well-publicised protest in Delhi against the Centre for allegedly withholding funds to the state under central schemes like the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana). The CBI then raided the homes of state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim and TMC legislator Madan Mitra in south Kolkata, in connection with another municipality recruitment scam that allegedly took place between 2014 and 2018. Hakim is also the Mayor of Kolkata. Both Hakim and Mitra had earlier been arrested by the CBI in May 2021 in connection with the Narada scam. They were later released on bail. That day, 10 simultaneous raids were carried out in the houses of former chairpersons and officials of municipalities across the state. Despite these raids, several leaders of the Opposition parties like the CPI(M) and the Congress had not been optimistic about their outcome. State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, “The ration scam is the biggest under the TMC government. But I have no faith in the ED probe. Let's see what happens." CPI(M) state secretary Md. Selim said, "The central agencies become active in spurts, but we are yet to see any fruitful results from these probes. Such wide-ranging scams couldn't have been possible without the Chief Minister's consent. Why are they not questioning the CM?" State BJP president Sukanta Majumder sounded more optimistic, saying, “It's obvious these raids should have been done long ago. And, why just raids, they should immediately be sent behind the bars."
