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Officials from the agency’s Kolkata zonal office on Friday (October 10) conducted search operations at 13 places in and around Kolkata, including the residence and firms of West Bengal Fire Minister Sujit Bose, in connection with the scam investigation.
“During the search, various incriminating documents including property, digital devices and unexplained cash were found.” An ED statement issued on Saturday (October 11) evening said, Rs 45 lakh has been seized.
ED teams on Friday raided the minister’s residence-cum-office in Salt Lake, a councilor’s house in Nagerbazar area and the houses of former officials of South Dum Dum Municipality.
Bose has accused the central agency of “politically targeting him ahead of the assembly elections”.
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Bose said, “Whenever elections come near, they conduct these raids. These visits are for leaders of opposition parties. This is not a new thing. They have raided my properties earlier also and have not found anything guilty against me. This is a tactic to create pressure before the elections.”
The minister claimed that ultimately the public will give the certificate of his honesty and not any agency.
“Let the investigating agency do its work. We will do ours. They keep talking about corruption, but fail to produce the necessary evidence. People know everything. They will give me my certificate,” he said.
In January 2024, the ED searched some properties, including a residence and an office, owned by the TMC leader and questioned him in connection with the same case.
After that 14-hour raid, the agency had seized some documents and the politician’s mobile phone, prompting Bose to say that if investigators could prove that he had “accepted even a single rupee from people in return for his ministerial services, he would immediately send his resignation to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee”.