Kolkata, Oct 9 A political slugfest has erupted in West Bengal over the raid by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths at the residence of BJP legislator from Ranaghat Northewest, Parthasarathi Chatterjee, in connection with its ongoing investigation in the alleged multi-crore cash for municipality jobs scam.
Chatterjee's house is being raided for his role as an erstwhile Chairman of Ranaghat Municipality, for 25 years first on behalf of Congress, then on behalf of Trinamool Congress. He parted ways with Trinamool before the 2021 Assembly polls, contested as a BJP candidate from Ranaghat Northwest that year and got elected.
On the CBI raid at Chatterjee’s residence, state Municipal Affairs & Urban Development minister and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim, at whose residence in south Kolkata similar raids were conducted on Sunday, said that this action at the BJP legislator’s residence is nothing but an eye-wash.
"It is something like in a social programme food is served on everyone’s plate except one. But take it from me that the BJP legislator will not be grilled or harassed in the manner we had been hassled," he said.
On the other hand, state BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya said that the “washing-theory” of Trinamool has fallen flat with the raid at their party legislator’s residence.
"This is evidence that the central agency probe is not politically motivated. It does not matter what is thge political affiliation of the person against whom the probe is being conducted. It is a court-monitored probe at the end of the day," he said.
Besides the residence of the BJP legislator, other teams of CBI conducted raids at other places in the different districts of state in relation to the municipalities’ job case. On Sunday, they conducted similar raid and search operations at 12 locations including the residences of Hakim and maverick Trinamool legislator Madan Mitra.
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