BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh on Sunday said the CBI officials entrusted with investigating various corruption allegations in Bengal were “sold out” to the ruling Trinamul Congress dispensation and that was why the Union finance minister had activated the Enforcement Directorate to probe the charges.

Midnapore MP Ghosh is a former state chief of the BJP, with somewhat of a disrepute for landing his party in awkward spots by shooting from the hip in public.

At a central government event in Calcutta’s ICCR, he said the ED had specially been activated by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman after the BJP-led Centre had found out that the CBI was being “purchased” in Bengal and going into “setting (entente)” with Mamata Banerjee’s party here.

“You probably know that CBI inquiries have been going on here for the past few months. But there was no effect. No document was coming out, no one was getting arrested…. I’ve also heard that after this was found out, some officers were transferred,” Ghosh said.

“Everyone has a price — lakhs, crores, hundreds of crores — and some of them (CBI officials) were getting sold out. The (Union) government realised this, and from what I’ve heard, the ED was activated by special intervention of the Union finance minister. After that, work has begun,” he added.

The CBI and the ED have been probing several graft allegations involving Trinamul leaders, including cattle smuggling, coal pilferage and recruitment of teachers.

Ghosh was referring to the arrest of former Trinamul heavyweight Partha Chatterjee and his associate Arpita Mukherjee by the ED in the alleged school recruitment scam.

Sources in the BJP admitted in private that Ghosh’s comments were a “major embarrassment”. They said Ghosh should have been far more cautious while speaking in public about the CBI, which had recently arrested Trinamul’s Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal.

“All of us have always had these questions, over the CBI’s inertia. But Dilipda chose to vent it in public at a time when it was doing some tangible work,” said a state BJP leader.

The CPM has been vocal about an alleged “setting” between Trinamul and the BJP.

“We’ve seen this all the time. Every time Trinamul is in trouble, Didi (Mamata) will go meet Dada (Modi) and things will be sorted out between them,” said CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty.

Trinamul, however, rejected Ghosh’s claims. Trinamul’s state general secretary Kunal Ghosh asked: “Does this mean Dilipda is saying that CBI’s FIR-named accused Suvendu Adhikari is roaming freely because he has some setting with the investigators?”

Adhikari — a Trinamul turncoat and currently the leader of Opposition in the Assembly, — is an accused in the Narada case.