Less than 24 hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress of destroying West Bengal with large-scale corruption, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched a fresh set of simultaneous and wide-spread search operations at the residences of several Trinamool Congress leaders, including an MLA and two civic body councillors belonging to the ruling TMC dispensation, for their alleged involvement in the State’s school recruitment scam. The agency also claimed to have seized at least Rs 28 lakh in cash and unaccounted jewellery from the house of Jafikul Islam, the MLA of Domkal in Murshidabad district.
The raids began early Thursday morning in at least eight locations of Calcutta, Murshidabad and Cooch Behar. They were reportedly conducted as a follow-up action to the investigation leads received from examining some of the prime suspects earlier arrested in the case. Among the heavyweight Trinamool leaders in the custody of the central agencies are former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, MLA and former president of the state primary education board Manik Bhattacharya and MLA Jiban Krishna Saha.
Among the premises raided by the CBI on Thursday were the residences of Jafikul Islam, the MLA of Domkal in Murshidabad district, and Calcutta Municipal Corporation councillor Bappadittya Dasgupta, and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation councillor Debraj Chakraborty. In political circles, Chakraborty is known to be close to Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool’s number two and nephew of Mamata Banerjee.
Except for Dasgupta’s residence in Patuli in the south-eastern fringes of Kolkata where agency officers left after more than five hours of search and examination and at Chakraborty’s house in North Kolkata where CBI officers left at around 2.30 p.m., the raids continued to take place at the rest of the premises amid tight security cover of central paramilitary forces, till late evening.
While Jafikul Islam runs his own B.Ed and D.El.Ed training in the education hub of Domkal, Dasgupta, the civic body head of Ward number 101, is known for his close proximity with Partha Chatterjee throughout the latter’s tenure as State Education Minister. Chakraborty, on the other hand, is the husband of Trinamool MLA and singer Aditi Munshi, another Mamata favourite.
The team of agency officers which landed up at the Domkal residence of Jafikul Islam, a leader known to enjoy close ties with Manik Bhattacharya, later split into two groups and raided Islam’s college as well. Sources in the agency confirmed that certain incriminating evidence was recovered from Islam’s residence and recruitment-related documents were being scanned at the principal’s chamber of the legislator’s college.
The team of CBI officers who reached Dasgupta’s house in Patuli were learnt to have left with the councillor’s mobile phone, his up-to-date bank statements and resumes of certain candidates for further scrutiny and were also learnt to have closely inspected his IT Return file. Dasgupta was reportedly also questioned about certain actions of Partha Chatterjee during his tenure as Minister.
“I have extended my full cooperation in their search and told the officers that I would continue to do the same if they need me to. The agency has not given me any appearance notice,” Dasgupta said while claiming he was not involved in the scam.
In Tegharia, in the northern corners of the city, the CBI reached Chakraborty’s residence at around 8.30 AM and, after spending some four hours there, left with the leader to his second residence at Dum Dum Park which doubles up as a studio for Chakraborty’s wife, a professional singer.
“The officers have found no documents relevant to the alleged scam at my place. These raids are being conducted because we are representatives of the Trinamool Congress. We are proud representatives of our party,” Chakraborty told reporters after the CBI team left.
In Cooch Behar, the CBI was learnt to have conducted searches at a B.Ed college in the Block II of the district. Local TMC leaders Sajal Sarkar and Shyamal Kar, it was understood, were under the agency scanner. In Murshidabad’s Burwan, the residence of a person, believed to be close to the arrested scam accused Kuntal Ghosh, was also raided by the agency.
