Raids, cash hauls, minister's arrest mark central agencies' probe into Bengal scams

Kolkata: Raids, cash hauls, arrest of a cabinet minister and questioning of senior Trinamool Congress Abhishek Banerjee marked the central agencies' probe into several scams in West Bengal this year.

However, the probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged coal pilferage, cattle smuggling and school jobs scams in the state lost steam as both agencies struggled to conclude the investigations into cases, some of which were over two years old.

Their investigations brought to the fore names of several prominent leaders of the ruling TMC, as well as businessmen and bureaucrats with alleged links to dormant shell companies used to siphon money collected during the scams.

Simultaneous investigations were carried out by both the federal agencies into municipal jobs scam following a Calcutta High Court order.

In May, the CBI questioned TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with alleged irregularities in the school teacher recruitment, and within 19 days, the ED summoned him in the same scam.

Banerjee, considered the second-in-command in the party after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had asserted that the CBI questioning in May yielded a "big zero" and called it a "waste of time".

In June, Banerjee's wife Rujira was stopped by ED sleuths at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata when she was about to board a flight to the United Arab Emirates along with her two children. The probe agency summoned her and she appeared before its sleuths on June 8.

The ED in September also summoned Abhishek Banerjee's parents Amit and Lata for questioning in connection with the school jobs scam.

The agency, which had questioned the two-time TMC MP from Diamond Harbour in 2021 and 2022 in connection with the coal pilferage scam, grilled him again in connection with school jobs scam in September, before summoning him for another time in November.

After the festivities in the state in October and November, both the probe agencies upped the ante and started conducting simultaneous raids at residences of TMC MLAs and councillors as well as chartered accountants with alleged links to the schools jobs and municipal recruitment scams.

The ED, during its investigation into the multi-crore ration distribution scam, unearthed a large sum of money and arrested state Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick in October.

Mallick's arrest also opened the lid on the operation of several shell companies in the state.

He was the second West Bengal minister, after Partha Chatterjee, to have been arrested in connection with alleged involvement in corruption in recent years.

The ED had in 2022 arrested the then Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee and his friend Arpita Mukherjee in connection with the school jobs scam.

ED sleuths, while probing irregularities in recruitments to various municipalities, arrested real-estate developer Ayan Sil in March.

The central agency claimed that Rs 200 crore had been collected from candidates for illegal appointments to civic bodies such as Kanchrapara, New Barrackpore, Kamarhati, Titagarh, Baranagar, Halisahar, South Dum Dum, Dum Dum and Taki.

The ED also arrested TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya, and Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Bhattacharya, who allegedly had close links with the ruling party, in connection with the school jobs scam.

It has filed at least five chargesheets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) under various scams.

In October, the CBI conducted searches at the residences of Kolkata Mayor and state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim, a prominent figure in the TMC, and party MLA Madan Mitra as part of its investigation into the recruitment in civic bodies.

However, despite all their efforts in probing the scams by conducting raids and making arrests, both the agencies grappled to reach to any conclusion in any of their investigations despite some of their probes being nearly two years old.

In November 2020, the CBI had registered a case against six people for their alleged involvement in illegal mining and pilferage of coal from railway siding and Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) leasehold areas.

Incidentally, following a Supreme Court order on the speedy disposal of the cases related to alleged irregularities in recruitments in secondary schools, the Supreme Court has directed the CBI to submit its final investigation report by January 9, 2024.

Talking to PTI on condition of anonymity, a senior CBI officer said the agency was "very much on the track" in its investigations and "would soon nab the brains behind the scams".

"We are quite sure that all these scams are interlinked and senior TMC leaders, government officials and police officers and involved in these. Investigating all these scams have been quite challenging," the CBI officer said.

According to an ED official, probing these scams was taking so much time because all these irregularities were "multi-layered" involving people from various strata of the society.

"All the scams seem to be inter-linked. The scams were multi-layered and some influential people in the state were involved. In a word, one can say that these scams are jumbled-up. Hopefully, things will start picking up pace in the coming year," the senior official of the central agency said.