WB recruitment scam: CBI raids premises of TMC MLA, councillors; cash seized
The TMC leaders claimed they were neither linked to the scam nor played any role in the recruitment of school staff, which is being probed by the two central agencies – the CBI and the ED
Cash amounting to Rs.28 lakh and documents in connection with the alleged bribe-for-job scam in the West Bengal education department were seized on Thursday from the residence of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator in Murshidabad district by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which raided eight other locations across the state simultaneously, officials of the federal agency said.
The CBI raided on Thursday the home and a private B-Ed college of Murshidabad’s Domkal constituency legislator Jafikul Islam, the residence of Kolkata Municipal Corporation councillor Bappaditya Dasgupta, two homes of Salt Lake councillor Debraj Chakraborty and the homes and a private B.Ed college of businessman Shyamal Kar and his brother Sajal Kar in Cooch Behar district of north Bengal.
Islam, Dasgupta and Chakrabarty claimed they were neither linked to the scam nor played any role in the recruitment of school staff, which is being probed by the two central agencies – the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) following the orders from the Calcutta high court passed in May 2022.
Speaking to the media after the raids, Chakraborty said that the CBI also raided his second property where his wife Aditi Munshi, a TMC legislator and well-known folk singer, runs a music school.
Islam told his party colleagues that the Rs.28 lakh CBI seized from his home were proceeds from a property sale. The CBI also seized some jewellery from his Domkal residence.
Neither CBI nor Islam made any official statement on the seizures even as the raids continued till late in the evening.
“I am in Kolkata, attending the Assembly session. I am running the college with permission from the state government. I was never involved in any recruitment scam,” Islam told the media.
The raids took place a day after Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a rally in Kolkata.
In his speech, Shah indirectly referred to the arrest of Bengal’s then education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee, by the ED in July 2022 in the alleged teacher recruitment scam. More than Rs.50 crore in cash, gold and foreign currency were recovered at that time from two apartments registered in Mukherjee’s name.
“I come from Gujarat, but nobody in my state has seen so much cash being seized from a leader’s home,” Shah said at the rally.
Hitting out at Shah, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee described it as “a flop show.”
She said the CBI has turned into the Bharatiya Janata Party’s mass organisation.
Further slamming the raids conducted by the CBI, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “Today’s raids were held to divert attention from Shah’s flop show. If money is seized from someone’s home then the person in question should be allowed to explain its source. Our party will take steps if it is proved that the cash was stashed illegally.”
“The CBI officers had warrants. They searched all the floors. I told them I have nothing to do with the scam,” Councillor Debraj Chakraborty said.
Councillor Bappaditya Dasgupta, who was known to be a close aide of Partha Chatterjee, also claimed to be innocent.
“The CBI officers asked many questions about Chatterjee and the scam. I answered as many as I could,” he said.
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said people whose homes were raided did not run the scam independently.
“These people are small players. The entire TMC thrives on corruption. The ruling party should stop hatching conspiracy theories every time the CBI or the ED conducts a raid. The money was already there in Islam’s house when the CBI team reached Domkal,” said Bhattacharya.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has been questioned twice by the ED in connection with the bribe-for-job scam. The ED also questioned Rujira Banerjee, his wife, and had summoned his parents between October 6 and 9, but the elderly couple avoided the questioning citing illness.
Several TMC leaders, including Partha Chatterjee, are in judicial custody in this case.
In May 2022, Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
After the CBI, ED also began a parallel probe.