ED arrests ex-Bengal minister Sujit Bose in municipality recruitment scam case | India News
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested former West Bengal minister and TMC leader Sujit Bose in the municipal recruitment scam.Days after the TMC’s defeat in West Bengal, the ED questioned senior party leader Sujit Bose regarding the probe into the municipal recruitment ‘scam’ case.Bose is alleged to have illegally recommended 150 candidates for various posts under the South Dum Dum Municipality in lieu of financial benefits. Before the arrest, the ED had traced the direct proceeds of crime in the form of flats acquired by him instead of giving municipal jobs to various persons. Moreover, the Anti-Money Laundering Agency has traced huge deposits of cash in bank accounts under his control. The former Trinamool minister will be produced in a special court on Tuesday morning.Bose, the former fire minister who was defeated in his stronghold Bidhannagar, was ordered by the court to join the probe.While CM Mamata Banerjee’s tenure was marked by a string of alleged scandals, a money trail related to appointments in municipalities stood out, ED sources told TOI, reaching out uncertainly to her nephew and Diamond Harbor MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is seen as Mamata’s massive success. The BJP’s landslide has dented Trinamool Congress’s ambitions to prolong its stay. Several money laundering cases being investigated by the ED, including political consultancy firm I-PAC in the coal smuggling ‘scam’, are set to return to Kolkata from Delhi.The investigation was stalled as ED officials were “intimidated” in Kolkata and many accused refused to cooperate despite repeated summons. Sources said the ED is likely to interrogate the accused, besides Abhishek, his wife Rujira, former DGP Rajeev Kumar, former Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma, then DCP Priyavrata Roy, I-PAC chief Prateek Jain, from whose premises Mamata, in whose presence a file was removed during the police brass raid on January 8.
