West Bengal school jobs scam: ED conducts raids in Kolkata for over 12 hours

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided eight places in and around Kolkata in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in recruitment in state-run and-aided schools of West Bengal, a senior officer said. The raids, which started around 6.30 am, ended in phases in the evening and the final one at around 10 pm. The searches were conducted at the residences, offices and bungalows of those who allegedly "acted as middlemen" in the scam, he said.

"These middlemen used to collect money and transfer it to various addresses. We are conducting raids at the residences and offices used by them," the ED officer told PTI. Accompanied by a huge number of central forces, the ED officers started search operations at New Town and Nayabad on the eastern fringes of Kolkata, and Mukundapur in the south, he said, adding that family members of the alleged middlemen were also questioned.

The officer said one of the "middlemen" was very close to former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and MLA Jibon Saha, both arrested in the scam. "One of the middlemen has accumulated properties at over 400 places in the state and we are trying to find out the source of the money. Our officers are going through the bank documents and other property-related papers," he said.

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The agency claimed that the name of another middleman has also cropped up during their probe and search operations are currently underway at his residence. During Thursday's grilling, the ED officers came to know about another property of one of the middlemen and conducted a raid there, he said. "We found that some of the properties were registered in the names of the middlemen and some in the names of their associates.

We will investigate further to find out more about their roles in the scam," he said. Incidentally, the CBI, which is also probing the scam, has also named the "middleman" as a key person in the school job irregularities.