Kolkata: A political slugfest has broken out in West Bengal over CBI’s summons to Fire Service Minister Sujit Bose on August 31 in connection with the municipalities recruitment scam.
Although Bose himself was not available for any comment in the matter till the filing of report on Thursday noon, Trinamool Congress’s state vice-president Jaiprakash Majumdar has raised his voice in support of the minister.
“It has been a regular practice for BJP and the Union government to use the central investigative agencies against the opposition parties. I am not aware of the exact reason why the state fire services minister has been summoned. I am not aware whether he will be going to the CBI office to face the questioning. But it is clear that the recent movement of the central agencies is a ploy by BJP to create a narrative against Trinamool Congress,” Majumdar said.
According to BJP’s state spokesman in West Bengal Samik Bhattacharya, the CBI is conducting the probe following a clear directive from the Calcutta High Court. “Of course the state government tried to stop the central agency probe by approaching the Supreme Court, which ultimately failed. CBI has surely found some concrete reasons for which they feel that the minister should be questioned. There is no point in floating an allegation that the development was a result of any political vendetta,” Bhattacharya said.
Bose was summoned by the CBI sleuths to question him on his role in the recruitment process in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) as an erstwhile deputy chairman of Dum Dum (South) municipality.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths got access to document recruitment irregularities in different municipalities in West Bengal while conducting raid and search operations at the residence of private real estate promoter and an accused in the cash for school job case in West Bengal Ayan Sil.
The probe officials informed this to the bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court, who on April 21, 2023 directed the central agencies like CBI to conduct a probe in the matter.
Later, the same order was upheld first by Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha and subsequently by the apex court of the country.
(IANS)
