Kolkata, April 20 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned trader Barik Biswas as part of its investigation into the ration scam in West Bengal, said the central investigation agency officials on Monday.

The rice trader has been asked to appear at the ED’s CGO Complex office in the Salt Lake area of the city on Monday afternoon. According to officials, this rice trader, Barik Biswas, is ‘close’ to former state food minister Jyotipriya Mallick.

Incidentally, in August 2024, the ED conducted searches at Barik Biswas’s house while investigating the ration corruption case. Detectives were looking into Barik’s role and influential connections in the huge money transactions in the ration scam.

According to ED officials, Rs 20 lakh was recovered during the search. ED officials even came across a lot of documents from his rice mill. After two years, the rice trader is back under the ED’s scanner. Barik is accused of trying to smuggle rice into Bangladesh. The investigators are trying to find out through whom the rice was smuggled into Bangladesh, who else is involved in the smuggling ring and whether there is a deal with anyone else from abroad. Barik has been summoned again to find out all these things.

Earlier, Barik Biswas’ name had come up in the gold and cow smuggling cases. The central agency’s sleuths have searched his house, an apartment, and an office earlier. Now, the Enforcement Directorate is trying to get more information in the ration case by questioning Barik Biswas.

It is worth mentioning that on October 27, 2023, the ED arrested senior Trinamool Congress leader and then state Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick in the ration scam.

The central investigation agency said that the state minister, known by many inside and outside the party as “Balu”, was directly involved in widespread corruption in the distribution of rations in the state during the COVID-19 lockdown. He was arrested after an interrogation and the collection of evidence. After about 14 months of his arrest, the court granted him bail in January last year. Just a week after his release on bail, his close aide Anisur, who was also accused in the same case, was also granted bail.

–IANS

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