On Thursday, October 5th, the Enforcement Directorate raided 13 locations linked to West Bengal Food & Supplies Minister and TMC leader Rathin Ghosh. The raids were conducted in connection with the recruitment scam in Madhyamgram Municipality. It is notable that Rathin Ghosh is the former chairman of the Madhyamgram Municipality. ED teams raided premises linked to Ghosh in 13 locations including Kolkata and North 24 Parganas. The TMC minister’s home was also raided.
TMC MLA from Madhyamgram Rathin Ghosh is accused of involvement in a scam to recruit unqualified candidates for government jobs. The ED is investigating allegations that Ghosh and his accomplices accepted payments from job seekers in exchange for jobs.
In addition to raiding locations associated with Rathin Ghosh, the ED is currently raiding the home of Kamarhati Municipality Chairman Gopal Saha in Belghoria, North 24 Parganas district. The ED launched raids at the homes of Aparna Maulik, Chairman of the Baranagar Municipality, and Netai Dutta, Vice Chairman of the South Dum Dum Municipality. Apart from this, ED is raiding the house of the former Vice President of Dum Dum Municipality Panchu Roy in Nagerbazar. ED raid is also going on at the residence of Prashant Chaudhary, the former chairman of Titagarh Municipality of North 24 Parganas district.
#WATCH | West Bengal | Enforcement Directorate conducts raids at the residence of West Bengal Food & Supplies Minister and TMC leader Rathin Ghosh. More than 12 premises linked to Ghosh have been covered in the state, including North 24 Parganas district and Kolkata.
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2023
Visuals… https://t.co/Fg1ukT2sJL pic.twitter.com/YhnpDWAzH9
Reportedly, the ED teams at each raid location are comprised of 7 to 8 officials and CRPF personnel have also been deployed for their security.
According to an IANS report, Ghosh’s name surfaced after ED officials seized incriminating documents from ABS Infozone. It is notable that ABS Inforzone is the agency outsourced by various municipalities in the state to carry out the recruitment examination process there, which revealed significant irregularities in recruitment procedures in Madhyamgram Municipality between 2014 and 2018.
ABS Infozone is owned by Ayan Sil, a private promoter who is already in judicial custody for his suspected involvement in a multi-crore cash-for-school-job fraud in West Bengal. While conducting raid and search operations at Sil’s apartment in March this year in connection with the school-job-scam case, ED officers for the first time obtained clues concerning the multi-crore urban civic bodies’ recruitment case.
According to estimates from the central agency, approximately 1,500 unlawful recruitments took place in 15 municipalities spread over districts such as North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Nadia, and Purulia.
