Kolkata, Oct 9 : The CBI on Monday raided the properties and house of BJP MLA Parthasarathy Chatterjee and five other places in relation to the alleged irregularities in recruitment in over a dozen civic bodies across the state, official sources said.
The raids came a day after the central’s anti-crime wing searched the homes of Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and TMC MLA Madan Mitra as part of the probe into the scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began searching the MLA’s house at Ranaghat in Nadia district and five other places, including Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas, Uluberia in Howrah, the sources said.
This is the first time the federal agency launched a raid on an opposition BJP legislator in the Calcutta High Court-monitored probe.
The sleuths of the central probe agency fanned out since morning and began search operations in the houses of TMC-run Diamond Harbour municipality’s chairperson Meera Halder and Ulluberia civic body’s ex-chairman Arjun Sarkar, sources added.
On Sunday the CBI questioned the West Bengal minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs as well as city Mayor Firhad Hakim for over 9 hours while searching his residence.
The federal agency on Sunday also searched and questioned former minister and current TMC MLA Madan Mitra at Bhawanipur, also in south Kolkata.
The agency also raided the offices of 10 municipalities, including Dum Dum, Halisahar,
Kachrapara, Krishnanagar, New Barrackpore, Taki and other places in the alleged scandal in recruitment for Group C and D posts in more than 14 civic bodies.
Many present and former chairpersons are under the scanner of the Calcutta High Court-monitored CBI probe.
