- Priyadarshini Hakim, Firhad Hakim's daughter: This was a mental torture for all members of our family. My father is in no way connected to this scam. It's all a reflection of vindictive politics. My father will hold a press conference shortly.
- It is not clear though whether the agency has seized any incriminating evidence from the leader's house
- CBI officers have now left Firhad Hakim's house after nearly nine and a half hours hours of their presence in his Chetla residence
- CBI officers leave two properties of Madan Mitra they were conducting search operations at, agency officers continues to search Firhad Hakim's house
- The CBI personnel were seen leaving Mitra's residences at Bhowanipore as well as at Dakshineshwar nearly six hours of search
- No clarity has so far been received on whether the agency managed to lay its hands on any incriminating evidence against the leader
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Mitra later claimed that the agency found nothing in his house which could connect him to the alleged corruption
- Mitra: I regret I should have offered them good food since they spent so much time at my house
- Mitra: I told them I have already spent 23 months in custody in connection with a different case
- Mitra: I am pretty sure now that the Modi government is on its way out and INDIA is coming to take its place
- Mitra: I would want to know from the agency whether they are going to tell the world what their takeaways from such raids are, especially after receiving our full cooperation and devotion of time
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Meanwhile, agency officers have reportedly finished their search operations at Halisahar and at the residence of Harendra Singh, chairman of Dum Dum municipality
Rude surprise awaited two Trinamul Congress heavy-weight leaders – Firhad Hakim and Madan Mitra – on Sunday morning when officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) simultaneously raided the residences of duo in connection with the municipal bodies recruitment scam.
The search and seizure operations alongside examinations of both the leaders were taking place at the properties of Hakim in Chetla and Mitra in Bhowanipore amid tight security cover of CRPF personnel at both premises.
Both Hakim and Mitra were reportedly present at their respective residences when agency officers landed at their respective doorsteps and offered no resistance to their entry.
According to information last received, CBI officers have launched parallel raids at 12 locations in total at properties belonging to Trinamul Congress leaders within and outside Calcutta.
Among those facing the agency heat on Sunday were former Halisahar municipal chief Angshuman Roy and former Kanchrapara municipality chairman Sudama Roy in North 24 Parganas, under tight central armed forces cover. Raids were also reportedly taking place at former Krishnanagar municipality boss Ashim Saha’s place at the residence of the former chief of the New Barrackpore civic body.
The search operations were being conducted in connection with the recruitment irregularities of Group C and Group D employees at various civic bodies which the agency in probing on a Calcutta High Court order.
While Hakim, mayor of Calcutta, also doubles up as the municipal affairs and urban development minister of Bengal, Mitra is an MLA from Kamarhati in the northern outskirts of the city and is believed to wield considerable influence in the civic body affairs of the region.
Sources confirmed that at least one company of central armed forces each have been deployed at the two premises who have stopped outsiders from entering each of the two premises.
While even lawyers and house helps were barred from entering the two premises after central forces took over, an exception was reportedly made for Priyadarshini Hakim, Firhads’s daughter, who was allowed to enter her father’s house with the CBI’s permission after she was initially stopped by the forces and was observed breaking into an argument with the men in uniform outside the entry gate at the Chetla property.
The simultaneous raids began at around 9 AM at the two premises after the agency, based on its investigation progress came across incriminating documents and statements from earlier suspects implicating the two leaders in the scam warranting the raids and questioning, sources said.
A significant number of TMC workers initially assembled outside the residences of the two leaders who protested the agency's move, calling it the Centre’s vendetta unleashed and intensified on opposition parties after the formation of the INDIA bloc.
On October 5, the Enforcement Directorate raided 14 locations in connection with the scam including the residences of food and supplies minister Rathin Ghosh and Kamarhati municipality chairman Gopal Saha.
Among the premises raided by the agency on Thursday was that of a bureaucrat in Salt Lake where search operations and examination lasted for over 16 hours.
Following the 19-hour raid at Saha’s Michael Nagar residence in the northern fringes of Calcutta, the leader alleged that the agency came up with nothing and that the move was orchestrated to harass him on political considerations.
Hakim, too, had lashed out against the BJP for “misusing central agencies to arm-twist the opposition” and demanded that the agency should reveal in court what evidence of the so-called “scam” it has managed to unearth from the search operations. “The municipal scam is a fictitious charge that the BJP is trying to rake up,” the Mayor had said.
The municipal recruitment scam came to light after the Enforcement Directorate chanced upon documents concerning various civic bodies of the state during search and seizure operations in March this year at the properties of real estate promoter Ayan Sil, an accused in the primary school teachers’ recruitment scam. Sil, now arrested, was believed to be a close aide of expelled TMC leader Santanu Banerjee, another scam accused who has also been taken in custody.
The agency subsequently informed the Calcutta High Court about its findings following which the court ordered both the ED and CBI to take up probe responsibilities into the suspected recruitment irregularities across civic bodies of the state.
Agency sources have claimed that around 1,500 people were illegally recruited by different civic bodies in the state, between 2014 and 2018, against monetary considerations.