Bengal ration scam: ED arrests ex-Bongaon Municipality Chairman

Shankar Adhya, a former Chairman of the Bongaon Municipality was arrested after a 17-hour raid in the infamous ration scam. Earlier on Friday, ED sleuths were at the receiving end of the supporters of TMC strongman Shahjahan Shaikh who attacked them when the latter had gone to Sandeshkhali to conduct a raid in Shaikh's house.

Bongaon (West Bengal):Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, arrested Shankar Adhya, Chairman of the Bongaon Municipality after a protracted 17-hour long search in the ration scam. He was nabbed at 12.32 am from his house.

The ED raid continued between 7.30 am (Friday) and 12.15 am (Saturday). The arrest followed the hostility ED sleuths had to encounter on Friday at Sandeshkhali at the behest of TMC strongman Shahjahan Shaikh.

ED officials who had gone to conduct a raid on Shaikh in the case were attacked by miscreants claiming to be Shaikh loyalists. Governor CV Ananda Bose who condemned the incident paid a visit on the victims on Friday.

However, probe agency sleuths were at the receiving end of Adhya's supporters who confronted them on their way. They were attacked with dangerous materials and they even fired at their cars before CRPF jawans retaliated.

Adhya was brought to the CGO Complex at Salt Lake, Kolkata. However, Adhya's wife has cried foul smelling a conspiracy behind her husband's arrest. 'We have been cooperating in the investigation but are flummoxed by the arrest," she said.

Incidentally, a senior member of Mamata Banerjee's cabinet Jyotipriya Mallick was earlier arrested for his alleged connivance in the scam.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Sandeshkhali ruckus on Saturday, state minister Shashi Panja said on Friday that had the government been informed, this incident would have been averted. She also blamed the Narendra Modi dispensation at the Centre for using probe agencies to malign Opposition leaders.

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