The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday asked Bengali actor Rituparna Sengupta to appear before the agency in Kolkata on June 5 in connection with her alleged role in the Rs 10,000-crore ration scam in West Bengal.

According to ED sources, primary investigation revealed that the money earned from the ration scam was used in the Bengali film industry. The ED officers told Sengupta to come to the office at Nizam Palace with the details of the accounts of her films.

According to investigators, rice and wheat were supplied in less than mandated quantities to fair price shop distributors by an influential businessman called Bakibur Rahman during the second term of the Mamata Banerjee government (2016-21), and the balance grain was then sold in the open market for profit.

Earlier on October 14, the ED arrested Bakibur Rahaman from his residence at Kaikhali on the outskirts of Kolkata.

Officials said that Rahaman is alleged to have close links with Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick who was also arrested by the Central agency on October 27, after a 22-hour-long interrogation.

Mallick, who was the food and supplies minister during 2016-2021, became the first Trinamool Congress leader to be arrested in the scam. During the successive term of Mamata regime, Mallick was replaced by Rathin Ghosh in 2021 following the backlash over the PDS scam.

According to investigators, Rahaman is alleged to have close links with Mallick. Rahman allegedly used to supply rice and wheat in lesser quantities to distributors. The balance was sold in the open market later.

Later the ED arrested former Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Sahjahan from residence and recovered arms and ammunition. He is now in judicial custody.

In 2019, actor Rituparna Sengupta was interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Rose Valley ponzi scam. According to sources, Sengupta had allegedly accompanied Rose Valley Group chairman Gautam Kundu on several foreign trips and helped him in the sale and production of films.

Source Indian Express

BDST: 1836 HRS, MAY 30, 2024
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