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New Delhi: Senior Trinamool Congress leader Jyoti Priya Mallick has told the Enforcement Directorate during his custodial interrogation that he received a “loan” of Rs 9 crore from Bakibur Rahman (a key accused in the PDS scam who is in jail) and declared it in the Income Disclosure Scheme, 2016, in the name of his wife and daughter and paid tax on it.
Disclosures made before the income tax departmentin 2016 were part of a brief window the government had provided to those who had unaccounted money.It was a one-timeamnesty scheme to pay tax of up to 45% on the money for which source of funds were not asked.
Mallick is being investigated for allegedly getting ‘proceeds of crime’ generated from illegal diversion of subsidised food grain to the open market. He was the minister for food and public distribution system (PDS) between 2011 and 2021, the period when up to 30% of PDS foodgrain was illegally diverted to private millers, according to the ED.
When the minister was asked about three shell companies which had received substantial ‘proceeds of crime’ from the PDS scam, sources said he denied controlling these entities either himself or through his family members. The agency has tracked cash deposits and other transactions of Rs 20 crore to these firms and has claimed to have found links of the minister’s close associates running these companies.
Mallick is in custody of the ED till November 12. The ED has said that during the probe, some of the accused directly referred to the minister in connection with payoffs.
The evidence gathered by the agency to substantiate these claims are by way of seized WhatsApp conversations extracted from the phones of some of the accused, including rice miller and key accused Bakibur Rahman and his employees. Sources said the ED has seized documents that showed travel and other expenditure were made by Rahman on behalf of Mallick and his family members. The ED said Rahman booked flight tickets for Mallick’s family members, which it claimed proved direct links of the minister with key accused responsible for running the PDS syndicate.
During multiple searches in connection with the PDS scam in the past one month, the last one on November 4, the ED seized Rs 1.4 crore in cash and froze Rs 16.8 crore in bank accounts of shell entities linked to the minister and Rahman.
Disclosures made before the income tax departmentin 2016 were part of a brief window the government had provided to those who had unaccounted money.It was a one-timeamnesty scheme to pay tax of up to 45% on the money for which source of funds were not asked.
Mallick is being investigated for allegedly getting ‘proceeds of crime’ generated from illegal diversion of subsidised food grain to the open market. He was the minister for food and public distribution system (PDS) between 2011 and 2021, the period when up to 30% of PDS foodgrain was illegally diverted to private millers, according to the ED.
When the minister was asked about three shell companies which had received substantial ‘proceeds of crime’ from the PDS scam, sources said he denied controlling these entities either himself or through his family members. The agency has tracked cash deposits and other transactions of Rs 20 crore to these firms and has claimed to have found links of the minister’s close associates running these companies.
Mallick is in custody of the ED till November 12. The ED has said that during the probe, some of the accused directly referred to the minister in connection with payoffs.
The evidence gathered by the agency to substantiate these claims are by way of seized WhatsApp conversations extracted from the phones of some of the accused, including rice miller and key accused Bakibur Rahman and his employees. Sources said the ED has seized documents that showed travel and other expenditure were made by Rahman on behalf of Mallick and his family members. The ED said Rahman booked flight tickets for Mallick’s family members, which it claimed proved direct links of the minister with key accused responsible for running the PDS syndicate.
During multiple searches in connection with the PDS scam in the past one month, the last one on November 4, the ED seized Rs 1.4 crore in cash and froze Rs 16.8 crore in bank accounts of shell entities linked to the minister and Rahman.
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