Amid raids on 14 municipalities over allegations of a scam in recruitments in West Bengal, at least seven don’t have any documents related to the process, according to sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). While the absence of papers is making the task tough for officers, they are tracking the beneficiaries.
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has, however, rubbished the allegations.
THE SCAM
It all started as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested a businessman, Ayan Sil, in a recruitment scam in the education department in March.
The raids at his house led the ED to documents proving that he ran a firm named ABS Infozone. The firm got the tender to look after the recruitment not only in the education department, but also in municipalities. Officers feel Sil was a key link between the job beneficiaries and middlemen. Agency insiders say the investigation has found that a contract was signed between Sil and municipalities, for which there has to be paper work.
The agencies have submitted documents in court, claiming not only education, but municipal recruitments, too, are seeing corruption.
ACTION TAKEN: 14 MUNICIPALITIES RAIDED
On April 21, the Calcutta High Court gave directions to the CBI to conduct an investigation into municipal recruitments.
The CBI raided 20 spots, including 14 municipalities, in June.
TMC SAYS POLITICAL VENDETTA
When News18 reached out to TMC MP Shantanu Sen, he termed it “political vendetta”.
“This is an absolutely false allegation. They cannot fight the TMC directly, so they are using agencies to do this. The TMC has zero tolerance for corruption. In case anything is wrong, the TMC takes action. This is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) politics and their weapon is agencies.”