CBI reaches doorsteps of Trinamool leader arrested by ED in ration distribution case

Insight Online News

Kolkata, March 11 : The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday reached the doorsteps of Trinamool Congress leader Shankar Adhya, who had been earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal. On the night of January 5, when an ED team was taking Adhya into custody from his residence at Bangaon in North 24 Paragans district, his aides in the area had prevented the agency officers and the accompanying CAPF personnel from taking him away. Earlier on the same day, ED and CAPF teams were attacked at Sandeshkhali in the same district. Now with the Calcutta High Court giving the nod to the CBI to probe both the cases of attack on ED and CAPF teams at Sandeshkhali and Bangaon, a CBI team on Monday morning reached the residence of Adhya, who is presently in judicial custody. Last week, the CBI had gone to the residence of now-suspended Trinamool leader Sheikh Shahjahan, the accused mastermind behind the attack on ED and CAPF teams in front of his house at Sandeshkhali on January 5, which left three agency officers injured. Shahjahan is currently in CBI custody. Both Shahjahan and Adhya are known to be close to former Food & Supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mallick, who was also arrested by the ED last year in the ration distribution case. Mallick is presently in judicial custody. Adhya is accused of playing a key role in diverting the scam proceeds by first converting them into foreign currencies through multiple entities dealing in foreign exchange, and parking them abroad, mainly in Dubai and Bangladesh, through the hawala route.