Bengal ex-minister faces ED custody over civic body hiring scam

Former West Bengal minister Sujit Bose was remanded to ED custody till May 21 in the municipal recruitment scam case. The agency alleged he gave contradictory statements and was linked to irregular civic appointments, financial discrepancies, and recommendation of candidates during investigations

Kolkata: A city court on Tuesday remanded former West Bengal minister Sujit Bose to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till May 21 in connection with the alleged municipal recruitment scam. Bose, a Trinamool Congress leader, was produced before the Bankshall Court after being arrested by the central agency late on Monday night, following hours of questioning.

The ED told the court that Bose had concealed information and made contradictory statements during interrogation during the course of the investigation into alleged irregularities in civic body recruitments.
The central probe agency sought 10 days’ custody of the former fire services minister, arguing that his release could influence the probe.

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After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge directed that Bose be kept in ED custody till May 21.
A three-time sitting MLA from Bidhannagar, Bose lost the recent Assembly elections against the BJP’s Sharadwat Mukherjee by a margin of more than 37,000 votes. Earlier in the day, Bose was taken to the Bidhannagar Sub-Divisional Hospital for a medical examination before being produced in court.

The ED earlier had said that it got a head up on alleged civic body recruitment irregularities while it was conducting searches in the West Bengal Teacher’s recruitment “scam” case in 2023. The documents were recovered from the premises of Ayan Sil, director of a company named ABS Infozon.

This company was responsible for printing question papers, OMR sheets, and the evaluation of marks obtained by the candidates, besides preparation of the merit list, for various municipal corporations of the state.

An ED source claimed that digital evidence recovered from Sil indicated that Bose had recommended the names of several job aspirants in the recruitment process. Scrutiny of bank accounts linked to Bose and his family revealed deposits worth crores of rupees, the officer said.

“Our officers have found that a restaurant owned by Bose had generated substantial income even during the COVID-19 pandemic period when it had reportedly remained shut,” he said. The ED counsel also told the court that investigators had traced multiple financial transactions involving Bose for which, the agency claimed, no legal justification had been provided.

The TMC leader’s counsel questioned the timing of the arrest and argued that the documents on the basis of which Bose was arrested had been in the ED’s possession since 2022, 2023 and 2024. The municipal recruitment scam has been under investigation for alleged irregularities in appointments across several civic bodies in West Bengal.

The civic body scam investigation in Bengal pertains to alleged irregularities in the recruitment of labourers, sweepers, clerks, peons, ambulance attendants, pump operators, helpers, sanitary assistants and drivers, etc, at several municipalities in the state.