ED Raids West Bengal Minister Sujit Bose’s Premises Over Municipal Jobs Scam

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted raids at the properties of West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress leader Sujit Bose in Kolkata in relation to a scam in municipal jobs. The locations where the raids are taking place have been cordoned off by tight security. Further details are expected to emerge soon. The scam in municipal recruitments came to light when the ED nabbed Ayan Sheel, a builder based in Kolkata, on March 19 for his involvement in a school jobs scam.

The ED alleged that they found OMR (answer) sheets of applicants for various positions in several municipalities at Ayan’s office in Salt Lake during a raid. In August last year, the CBI had also questioned Bose in the ongoing investigation into the alleged irregularities in municipal hirings between 2014 and 2016.

The state government’s plea to halt the CBI probe into the alleged municipal scam was dismissed by the Kolkata High Court. The CBI and ED had told the Kolkata high court that there was a link between the scam in civic body recruitments and the scam in school education department jobs, in which Partha Chatterjee, the former education minister, has been arrested.

Bose served as the vice chairman of South Dum Dum Municipality from 2010 to 2021, during which nearly 250 people were hired. He is the first cabinet minister to be summoned in this case.