Bengali actor and former Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Nusrat Jahan is expected to depose before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its CGO Complex office in Salt Lake, Kolkata. The federal agency issued a fresh summons to the former Basirhat MP to investigate her potential link to a massive ration distribution scam involving the illegal smuggling of government-allocated wheat and rice to Bangladesh. While the actress reportedly requested to move the questioning to New Delhi due to travel plans, investigators remain focused on her role in the border constituency where the irregularities were first flagged.
The investigation traces back to a 2020 FIR lodged at the Basirhat Police Station during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, multiple trucks carrying grains intended for the Public Distribution System (PDS) were intercepted near the Ghojadanga Land Customs Station. Instead of reaching local fair-price shops for the poor, the stocks were allegedly diverted to international markets for profit. The ED, investigating the money laundering aspect, seeks to understand if the then-MP or her associates facilitated the logistics of this cross-border diversion.
This development marks the second major legal entanglement for Ms. Jahan within three years. In September 2023, she was grilled for over six hours regarding a separate real estate scam where investors claimed they were cheated out of ₹24 crore. While she has consistently denied wrongdoing, labeling the claims as politically motivated, the timing of the latest summons—arriving just 24 hours before the first phase of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections—has reignited a fierce war of words. TMC leaders have accused the central government of using the ED as a tool for “political vendetta” to intimidate high-profile campaigners, whereas opposition parties maintain that the probe is essential to recover stolen public resources.
