ED raids Bengal minister, IT raids TMC treasurer’s kin

Enforcement Directorate today conducted multiple raids in Bengal in connection with the school recruitment scam in which the former Education Minister Partha Chattopadhyay is in custody for more than one year. Among those raided today was Minister for MSME and Textiles in the Mamata Banerjee government Chandranath Sinha whose residence in Bolpur in Birbhum district was surrounded by Central forces from 7 am.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax department’s raid on Trinamool Congress leader Swarup Biswas continued for more than 60 hours. Swarup is the brother of Aroop Biswas, the party’s treasurer and close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Income Tax department sources said that a huge cache of documents had been recovered from the leader’s residence that indicated large investments in real estate firms and evidence of foreign transactions.

Keeping in mind its bitter experience in Sandeshkhali where a mob instigated by Sheikh Shahjahan, the local Trinamool Congress leader beat up the ED team and its escorts, today the security forces cordoned off the area in Bolpur and disallowed people from assembling in groups. Sinha, who is extremely close to Trinamool district chief and local strongman Anubrata Mandal, was not present during the search as he was at his ancestral home in Murarai, 90 km away.

The ED sleuths summoned him to Bolpur and questioned him for more than eight hours. “The search is in connec tion with the investigation of the alleged irregularities in the school recruitment scam,” an officer said. Sinha had been previously summoned by the CBI in cases of cattle and coal smug gling in which the prime accused Anubrata Mondal is in Tihar Jail.

The ED also conducted raids at the homes of some businessmen in Kolkata, including Lake Town, Chetla, and Ballygunge. “They were suspected to be helping in transferring funds illegally from India to other coun tries. We are talking to them, and looking into some docu ments,” an officer said.