KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out raids at five places, including the resident of TMC minister Chandranath Sinha in Birbhum district, in connection with the multi-crore irregularities in recruitments in schools that landed former education minister Partha Chatterjee in jail.
Sinha, an MLA from Bolpur and MSME and textile minister, was not present at home when the sleuths of the federal agency arrived there.
“We carried out raids at five places in connection with the recruitment scam. Besides Sinha’s residence, we searched the houses of two businessmen and a tax at Lake Town, Chetla and Ballygunge in Kolkata. They are suspected to be involved in transferring funds from India to abroad. We have collected some documents from these places,” said an ED official.
A team comprising five sleuths knocked the door of Sinha’s house around 9.15 am. They entered the house leaving central force personnel behind central force personnel to guard the entry and exit points of the minister’s house. Sinha had also been summoned by the CBI previously in connection with cattle smuggling cases.
The CBI started a probe into the cash-for-job scam following an order by the Calcutta High Court in May 22, and later the ED started a parallel probe to trace the footprints proceeds of the alleged crime.
Former Judge of the high court, who ordered the central agencies to probe into the recruitment scam, resigned and joined the BJP on March 7.
Other than the former education minister, the federal agency arrested two others MLAs of the ruling TMC—Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha—in connection with the recruitment scam. All three are now in judicial custody.
The irregularities issue caused large-scale embarrassment for Mamata Banerjee and her party as her arch rival BJP has been raising the issue as its key political tool to sharpen attack on the Bengal’s ruling party.
The ED also summoned and interrogated chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira were also interrogated in connection with the money laundering aspect of the recruitment scam case.
