School job scam: CBI raids residences of TMC MLA, councillors

Kolkata, November 30

The CBI on Thursday conducted simultaneous raids at the residences of several Trinamool Congress leaders, including an MLA and two councillors, for their alleged involvement in irregularities in school recruitment in West Bengal, an official said.

The central agency raided the residence of Jafikul Islam, the MLA of Domkal in Murshidabad district, and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) councillor Bappaditya Dasgupta and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation councillor Debraj Chakraborty, he said.

“These raids are being conducted as a part of our investigation into the teachers’ recruitment scam. The raids are on. We are questioning the people whose homes and offices are being raided,” the official told PTI.

Raids are on at different locations in and around Kolkata, Murshidabad and Cooch Behar districts in connection with the investigation, he said.

Sleuths of the central agency conducted raids at the Patuli residence of Islam on the outskirts of Kolkata and seized documents and bags containing cash and jewellery, the official said, adding that they brought one notes-counting machine to count the recovered cash.

Incidentally, Islam was earlier questioned by the central probe agency.

Sources in the CBI said that they also seized around Rs 4 lakh from the possession of Islam’s wife and around 120 grams of gold ornaments during the raid.

CBI sleuths also raided one college run by the MLA in Murshidabad district and looked for documents, he said, adding that the searches were still on.

Search operations at Dasgupta’s residence in Patuli and Baishnabghata continued for five hours during which CBI sleuths seized the TMC leader’s bank statements, two mobile phones and a few documents, including the bio-data of a couple of candidates.

They raided the Charaborty’s residence in Jyangra in Rajarhat on Thursday morning and left the premises after a few hours of search operations.

It must be mentioned that the CBI had summoned Chakraborty in connection with incidents of post-poll violence in 2021.