“Tell me, am I a thief?” “Why are you repeatedly targeting me and my family, harassing them time and again in the name of conducting unrelated investigations where you keep finding nothing?”

That was the emotional outburst of Calcutta mayor, state municipal affairs and urban development minister, Firhad Hakim, minutes after the contingent of CBI officers left his Chetla residence after conducting search operations in connection with the civic body recruitment scam case for nearly nine and a half hours on Sunday.

Hakim was flanked by his wife Ismat and daughter Priyadarshini on his two sides when he addressed the media outside his home where he declared: “Throw me in jail if that serves your political purpose. But don’t trample my reputation which I have earned with years of serving the people without a single blot in my political career.”

The leader expressed his exasperation at not being allowed to attend the funeral rituals of his brother in the wake of the raids conducted.

Asserting that the municipal affairs department has no role to play in conducting recruitments in civic bodies either by the state Act or by its procedures, the minister informed that agency officers seized nothing from his home. “They searched every corner of my house and found nothing that could connect me with the alleged scam. However they have taken photocopies of my personal documents like identity card, Voter ID card, passport, IT return files, deeds of properties of me and my family as well as a list of jewelry we own,” Hakim said.

“Those who take money in return for jobs are the worst possible specimens on earth. But I have remained a councillor in Chetla for 25 years before. Let one contractor or a builder say that I have taken cuts for the jobs they did and I will quit politics now and here,” the minister said on the verge of breaking down.

The city mayor also took the opportunity to point fingers at the Calcutta High Court which ordered the central agency probe into the alleged corruption. “I will ask Justice Amrita Sinha whether she would ask the agency to justify the raid on grounds of what it thought was ‘related’ to the scam. What does a municipal affairs minister have to do with municipal recruitment? Does a single recruitment file reach my table?”

“Justice is supposed to be blind to propaganda and perceptions created by the outside world and the courts should remember that,” Hakim said. “That’s why she is blindfolded, holding a scale in her hands with witnesses on one side and evidence on the other. It should not have pre-formed opinions based on media coverage.”

Referring to his May 2021 judicial sentence in connection with the Narada corruption case, the Trinamul leader said: “I was thrown in jail for a crime I did not commit. It was a unilateral arrest and I knew I wouldn’t get justice because the agency would never arrest Suvendu (Adhikari) for the same act. I spent time in jail but did not try to get myself admitted to the hospital. Now they are back at it again, harassing my family.”

The minister lashed out at BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari without naming him directly: “You may choose to jump over to the BJP for fear of the agencies, but I am not going to do that,” he announced.

“The BJP is a party of uncivilized, barbaric thugs who do such manipulations behind the back when they fail to take us head-on. These are the final bullets they fire when they are sure of their defeat. Shame on them,” Hakim roared.

Declaring that he was subject to CPI-M’s torture when he was in opposition in the erstwhile Left era, Hakim maintained there was never any attempt by the ruling dispensation to “strip him of his social respect or harass his family”. “I would ask opposition leaders Sujan Chakraborty, Bikash Bhattacharya and Dilip Ghosh, who know me personally, whether I have ever indulged in corrupt practices,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the demeanour of Madan Mitra, another heavy-weight Trinamul leader whose properties the CBI raided was, however, markedly different from that of Hakim.

“I regret I couldn’t offer them good food since they spent so much time at my house,” a smiling Mitra told reporters after the agency officers left after spending time at his Bhowanipore residence for nearly five and a half hours.

“We did watch the India – Australia World Cup match together on TV, though, and cheered when Kohli took that brilliant catch,” the maverick leader chuckled. “After all, we are all Indians!”

Mitra claimed that no documents were seized from the two properties at Bhowanipore and Dakshineshwar which the agency searched during the day. “They have given me a written note that nothing was found and seized from my property and I have given them a received copy of that memo,” the Kamarhati MLA said.

“As an MLA, I have to entertain thousands of job requests in government establishments from our citizens. I can’t turn away any of them when they come to my office or home. I do and I will keep on fighting for their jobs till the last bit of strength is left in me. But show me one example where I have pushed someone bypassing the norms,” he challenged.

The leader maintained that he was in jail custody for 23 months before in connection with the state’s Ponzi scam case and could not have played a role in irregular municipal recruitments since the time span of the scam coincided with his custody.

“But there’s one thing that I understood from today’s experience. I am now pretty sure that the Modi government is on its way out and the INDIA coalition is coming to take its place,” the leader said with a smirk while sporting a black Pathan suit and his characteristic dark shades.

Asked if he would appear before the agency id summoned, Mitra said: “Of course, I will. In fact, it’s easier for me to visit their office. My house is too small to host them properly.”