Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are conducting searches at multiple locations, including the house of West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister Rathin Ghosh, on Thursday in connection with suspected persons involvement into the alleged irregularities in the recruitments done by the civic bodies in the state, officials said.
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The ED's raid is expected to raise heat and dust with a less than a year to go for the Lok Sabha elections which will pit the NDA led by the BJP against the INDIA alliance of which Trinamool Congress is a part.
Along with a large contingent of central forces, the investigators reached Ghosh's residence in Michaelnagar in North 24 Parganas district around 6.10 am, they said.
Simultaneously, the investigators launched searches at 12 other places in connection with the case, they added. It was not immediately known if Ghosh was at his house when the searches began. It is not known if the enforcement agency is conducting raids at residences of any other prominent TMC minister or leader.
Trinamool Congress, which is quite vocal about the raids conducted by Enforcement Directorate across the country as Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee often blamed the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre of playing 'vendetta' politics, is yet to come up with any reaction about the matter.
Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress MLA of Madhyamgram, was earlier an office-bearer of the Madhyamgram Municipality. The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that around 1,500 people were illegally recruited by different civic bodies in the state, between 2014 and 2018, against monetary considerations.
