KOLKATA, Feb 5: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said that TMC leader Shankar Adhya, arrested in connection with an alleged multi-crore ration scam in West Bengal, siphoned off money to a Dubai-based company’s account.
Adhya, the former chairman of the Bangaon Municipality, owns a foreign exchange company in the Petrapole area along the India-Bangladesh border, and his relatives also run “around 90 such companies, which were used to siphon off funds outside the country”, a senior ED official said.
The Trinamool Congress leader had also opened a company in Dubai, registered under his son’s name, with the help of Bakibur Rahaman, another accused in the scam who was arrested in October 2023, the official said.
“Adhya has been involved in siphoning off huge amounts to a Dubai-based company’s account,” he told PTI.
During the investigation, the ED officers found that on October 16, 2019, USD 79,584 (around Rs 66 lakh) was transferred to that account, he said.
“We are trying to identify the company (where the money was transferred),” the official added.
Adhya was apprehended from his residence at Simultola in Bongaon in January.
He is considered to be close to state minister Jyotipriyo Mallick, who was arrested in connection with the scam last year. (PTI)