MAMATA LAMBASTS MODI GOVT AS ED RAIDS FOURTH BENGAL MINISTER

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday came out blazing against the Centre after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the residences of Jyotipriya Mallick who is currently the Minister for Forest Affairs and had previously held the portfolio for Food and Supplies in the state government in connection with a multicrore ration scam.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Addressing a press conference from her residence as she is under medical rest, the Chief Minister asked: “This is a dirty game. Every morning you are raiding someone. Has any raid been conducted on the thieves and dacoits of the BJP?”

Jyotipriya Mallick is the third Minister of the West Bengal government who has been raided by the ED in the past one month and the fourth overall. Mamata Banerjee’s Industries Minister and former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee has been in jail for more than a year in connection with a cash-for-jobs scam in the education sector. The ED had recovered Rs 49 crore in cash from the apartments belonging to his close associate.

Banerjee said that her Minister Jyotipriya Mallick was highly diabetic and warned that if he succumbed due to the ED raids, she would order her police to file FIRs against the ED and the BJP.