Bengal ration case: ED probes Bangladesh links of arrested bizman

Kolkata: Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths have started probing the Bangladesh links of Biswajit Das, the Kolkata-based businessman who was arrested by the central agency sleuths in connection with the ration distribution case in West Bengal.

Sources said that Das, a close confidante of West Bengal Minister Jyotipriya Mallick and Trinamool Congress leader Shankar Adhya, used to visit Bangladesh frequently.

Even a day before his arrest on February 14 he was in Bangladesh. He hurriedly returned to Kolkata on February 13 evening after being informed that the ED sleuths were conducting raid and search operations at his premises.

Both Mallick and Adhya are in judicial custody now for their alleged involvement in the ration distribution case and Das's name surfaced in the course of interrogation of Adhya by the ED sleuths.

Sources said that as the ED sleuths are getting deeper into their investigation in the ration distribution, the investigating officials are securing additional clues relating to hawala and Bangladesh links in diversion of the ill-gotten proceeds in the alleged scam,

Adhya and Das, as per the latest findings of the central agency sleuths, played the key role in first converting the alleged scam proceeds through multiple foreign exchange dealing entities and then diverting the same abroad through the hawala route.

The two main countries, according to sources, where these funds were diverted through the hawala route, are Bangladesh and Dubai.

On Friday, at the end of the ED custody, Das was presented at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata. The hearing in the matter at that special court is currently on.

While being brought out of ED office on Friday after, Das spoke briefly to the media and claimed innocence. “Yes I knew Shankar Adhya. But I never had any sort of intimacy with him. Grave injustice has been done with me. I am an ordinary businessman. I am not involved in any kind of political activities,” Das claimed.