Firhad Hakim, West Bengal’s Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs, who is also the mayor of Kolkata, was raided by the CBI on Sunday for more than nine hours in connection with a cash-for-jobs scam in as many as 60 municipal bodies in the State. Hakim is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s senior-most Minister and the Muslim face of the Trinamool Congress party.
Another former Minister and MLA Madan Mitra’s two establishments were also raided. Mitra is an MLA from Kamarhati in the northern outskirts of the city and is believed to wield considerable influence in the civic body affairs of the region.
After more than nine hours of CBI raids, Hakim lashed out against the BJP for “misusing Central agencies to arm-twist the Opposition” and demanded that the agency should reveal in court what evidence of the so-called “scam” it has managed to unearth from the search operations. “The municipal scam is a fictitious charge that the BJP is trying to rake up,” the Mayor said. “Am I a thief? Why am I being targeted again and again? BJP can do anything it wants but I will not leave my party or my ideals,” he added.CBI personnel carried out simultaneous raids with heavy CRPF presence at 12 places in Kolkata and other towns at properties belonging to Trinamool Congress leaders in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam which came to light when the Enforcement Directorate was probing another scam.
A large number of TMC workers initially assembled outside the residences of the two leaders who protested the agency’s move, calling it the Centre’s vendetta unleashed and intensified on Opposition parties after the formation of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
Among those facing the agency heat on Sunday were former Halisahar municipality chief Angshuman Roy and former Kanchrapara municipality chairman Sudama Roy in North 24-Parganas. Raids also took place at former Krishnanagar municipality chief Ashim Saha’s house as well as the residence of the former chief of the New Barrackpore civic body.
The search operations were being conducted in connection with the recruitment irregularities of Group C and Group D employees at various civic bodies which the agency is probing on a Calcutta High Court order. The Trinamool Congress said that the CBI searches were a desperate attempt to divert the attention from its ongoing demonstration outside the Raj Bhavan over demands for Central funds.
“This is an attempt to divert the public’s attention from the ongoing protest outside Raj Bhavan, led by Abhishek Banerjee. The BJP appears to be sensing a growing public discontent, and they are using every means at their disposal to change the narrative. This is a clear example of vendetta politics,” senior TMC MP Sougata Roy said.
BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya rejected the charge and said: “If the TMC has nothing to hide, why are they afraid of ED and CBI?” “Whenever TMC leaders are summoned by the ED or CBI, they cry foul and accuse the agencies of being politically motivated. Yet, the reality is that the TMC is deeply mired in corruption with nearly every leader facing some allegation or the other,” he claimed.
Both Hakim and Mitra were arrested by the CBI in 2021 in the Narada sting operation case. Mitra was also arrested by the CBI in 2014 in the Saradha chit fund scam. On October 5, the Enforcement Directorate raided 14 locations in connection with the scam including the residences of Food and Supplies Minister Rathin Ghosh and Kamarhati municipality chairman Gopal Saha.
Following the 19-hour raid at Ghosh’s Michael Nagar residence in the northern fringes of Calcutta, the leader alleged that the agency came up with nothing and that the move was orchestrated to harass him on political considerations.
Among the premises raided by the agency on Thursday was that of a bureaucrat in Salt Lake where search operations and examination lasted for over 16 hours.
Central investigating agencies say that around 1,500 people were illegally recruited by different civic bodies in the State between 2014 and 2018 against monetary considerations.
The municipal recruitment scam came to light after the Enforcement Directorate chanced upon documents concerning various civic bodies of the State during search and seizure operations in March this year at the properties of real estate promoter Ayan Sil, an accused in the primary school teachers’ recruitment scam. Sil, now arrested, was believed to be a close aide of expelled TMC leader Santanu Banerjee, another scam accused who has also been taken in custody.
The agency subsequently informed the Calcutta High Court about its findings following which the court ordered both the ED and CBI to take up probe responsibilities into the suspected recruitment irregularities across civic bodies of the State.
