CBI files chargesheet in Bengal civic bodies’ recruitment scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed a chargesheet at a special CBI court in the multi-crore recruitment scam case concerning different municipalities in West Bengal.
CBI sources said that in the chargesheet, the Central agency informed that as many as 1,829 recruitments were made in 17 municipalities in the State through an outsourced private entity owned by Ayan Sil, who is currently in judicial custody in connection with another multi-crore cash-for-school job scam case.
On Tuesday, the CBI counsel informed the court that the Central agency officials had raided 42 places while probing the municipalities’ recruitment case, from where they had seized several crucial documents.
He also made a submission at the court that the CBI officials now need to interrogate Sil in connection with the documents seized by them.
The scam in appointments in different municipalities in West Bengal was accidentally unearthed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March last year while they were conducting a raid and search and seizure operations at Sil’s residence in connection with the school job case in which the former Education Minister Partha Chattopadhyay and a host of department officials are in custody.
During that raid, the ED officials accessed a 28-page document that revealed the involvement of Sil’s company with the municipalities’ recruitment case. They brought it to the notice of the Calcutta High Court which is supervising the investigation into the scam.
The CBI started the investigation on the High Court direction and conducted the raid and search operations at different places. The CBI officials also interrogated several Trinamool Congress leaders linked to the case.
Investigation revealed that recruitments against cash were done in several municipalities for a variety of posts which included medical officers, ward masters, clerks, drivers, helpers and cleaning assistants, among others.