KOLKATA: TMC MLA from Murshidabad — Jiban Krishna Saha — grabbed two of his mobile phones during a CBI interrogation on Friday in connection with irregularities in teachers’ recruitment in schools, ran towards his backyard and threw the handsets into a pond. Surprised investigators suspect evidence related to the alleged recruitment scam was stored in the cellphones.The central agency on Saturday engaged three pumps to drain out water of the pond and asked labourers to search the waterbody. Even after searching for 10 hours, the gadgets could not be recovered.
The CBI swung into action and raided six places of TMC leaders shortly after Union Home minister Amit Shah, while addressing a rally in Birbhum on Friday, said nothing can stop the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from probing into the recruitment scam in which former education minister Partha Chatterjee and several education department officials were arrested last year.
A team of CBI officers went to the residence of Saha, an MLA from Burwan constituency in Murshidabad. “We came to know about a middleman after interrogating jailed and expelled TMC leader Kuntal Ghosh and while pursuing the lead, Saha’s name surfaced,’’ said an agency sleuth.
The CBI sources said documents related to the alleged recruitment scam were recovered from Saha’s residence and office. “We found five bags stashed with recruitment related documents in a bush
adjacent to the boundary wall of his house.”
‘After 10 hrs of search, phones not recovered’
The central agency on Saturday engaged three pumps to drain out water of the pond and asked labourers to search the waterbody. Even after searching for 10 hours, the gadgets could not be recovered. During the interrogation, when officers asked for his phone, he grabbed the phones and ran out of the room he was being questioned in.