Security personnel keep a vigil during a search conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at a property belonging to West Bengal minister Sujit Bose.
Credit: PTI photo
Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted search operations at seven locations in Kolkata, including properties linked to West Bengal minister Sujit Bose, in connection with its probe into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment at a municipality, a senior official said.
The ED teams raided the minister's residence-cum-office in Salt Lake, a councillor's house in Nagerbazar area, and houses of former officials of the South Dum Dum Municipality, he said.
Raids were also underway at a house in Thanthania Kalibari area in north Kolkata, and also at a lawyer's residence in New Alipore in the southern part of the city, the official said.
"Today's raids are aimed at collecting documents linked to the corruption charges. The office of the minister was not originally on our list," the ED official told PTI, adding that the raids were still going on.
"So far, we have seized several OMR sheets from the minister's office," he said.
He said the ED officers were also talking to the manager of a restaurant in the Salt Lake area, which is allegedly owned by the minister.
"The name of the restaurant surfaced in our probe. We are talking to the owner and checking the bank details to find out whether some suspicious transactions were done or not," he said.
Speaking to reporters later in the day, Bose accused the central agency of “targeting him politically ahead of the elections”.
“They conduct these raids every time there’s an election knocking on the door. These visits are meant for leaders belonging to the opposition parties. This is nothing new. They have raided my properties before and found nothing incriminating against me. This is a strategy to exert pressure before the polls,” Bose said.
The minister claimed that his honesty certificate would ultimately be given by the people and not any agency.
“Let the investigating agency do its work. We will do ours. They keep talking about corruption, but fail to furnish the required evidence. The people know everything. They will give me my certificate,” he said.
Earlier, in January 2024, the ED searched a few properties, including residences and an office, owned by the TMC leader, and questioned him in connection with the same case.
Following that 14-hour raid, the agency had seized certain documents and the politician’s mobile phone, prompting Bose to state that he would send his resignation papers to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee forthwith, if investigators could prove he accepted “even one rupee from people in return for his ministerial services”.