The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Friday conducted raids at the premises of West Bengal minister and TMC leader Sujit Bose in Kolkata, related to an alleged municipality jobs scam. Tight security has been deployed at the locations undergoing the raids.
The purported irregularities in municipality recruitments came to light when the ED arrested Kolkata-based builder Ayan Sheel on March 19 in connection with a school jobs scam. The ED asserted that OMR (answer) sheets of candidates for various posts in several municipalities were discovered at Ayan’s Salt Lake office during a search.
In August of the previous year, the CBI summoned Bose for questioning in the ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in municipal appointments between 2014 and 2016. The Kolkata High Court had dismissed the state government’s petition seeking a stay on the Calcutta High Court order for a CBI probe into the alleged scam in municipal hirings.
Both the CBI and ED informed the Calcutta High Court that there were connections between the civic body recruitment scam and the bribe-for-job scam in the West Bengal school education department, leading to the arrest of former education minister Partha Chatterjee.
Bose, who served as the vice chairman of South Dum Dum Municipality from 2010 to 2021 when nearly 250 people were recruited, is the first cabinet minister to be summoned in this case.
