'Will not survive for long', says arrested Bengal minster

Kolkata, Nov 12 (IANS) Jyotipriya Mallick, the West Bengal minister arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the ration distribution scam case in West Bengal, on Sunday claimed that his medical condition was such that he may not survive for long.

“My health is extremely bad. I will die soon,” the minister said while being brought out of the ED’s Salt Lake office in the northern outskirts of Kolkata for the purpose of medical check-up at defence-run Command Hospital in South Kolkata.

Mallick, the current state forest minister and the former state food & supplies minister, was looking visibly shattered while coming out of the ED office with support from two officials of the central agency. Although he refused to comment on the ration distribution case related matters, he expressed apprehension of his possible demise soon.

This is the second time in an interval of 48 hours that the arrested minister expressed such serious concerns about his health condition. On October 10 also, while he was brought to the Command Hospital by the ED sleuths, he claimed that his health condition was deteriorating and his limbs might become paralytic.

“I am extremely unwell. It seems that my left hand and left leg are becoming paralytic,” Mallick said on Friday.

His body language while interacting with the media persons waiting in front of the ED office for the last two days, were quite different than previous occasions immediately after his arrest last month, when he was confidant of his quick release from the case,

However, his interaction on Sunday expressing apprehension about his death has raised eyebrows of many.

On October 26, while ED sleuths were conducting marathon raid and search operations at Mallick’s residence, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threatened to file FIRs against the ED officials if there was a negative reaction on the health of Mallick .

“He is suffering from high blood-sugar and is not in the proper health condition. So if anything happens to him because of the unnecessary harassment, we will have to file FIRs against the ED officials,” the chief minister said on that day.