Kolkata: CBI on Sunday unleashed multiple teams of investigators, escorted by central forces, on a host of Trinamool politicians, searching the homes of West Bengal urban development minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, and veteran politician and Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra, apart from nearly a dozen former and present office-bearers of municipalities, in connection with the municipality recruitment scam probe.
The searches come when the Trinamool, under its national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s leadership, is on a round-the-clock vigil outside Raj Bhavan after Abhishek’s Delhi visit to press for the release of central funds for the state.
Besides Hakim and Mitra, some of the prominent politicians searched were Dum Dum chairperson Harendra Singh, New Barrackpore’s former chairperson Tripti Majumdar, Krishnanagar’s former chairperson Asim Saha and Halisahar’s ex-chairperson Anshuman Roy.
The CBI team was at Hakim’s Chetla residence for around nine-and-a-half hours. “We have been slapped with false cases during the Left Front regime, but never was I insulted so much,” said Hakim after the officers left. “Why so much harassment? Am I a thief ? Is it because I will not bow down before BJP? I could not even attend the shradh (40th-day mourning) of my brother today.”
He said he had given officers “every document they asked for, including identity proofs, property details and even a list of all jewellery inside the house”.
Mitra joked about the personal nature of questioning: “They asked me if I had one or two wives. It is official, on record. I told them they can investigate that.”
TMC reacted saying the searches were part of “a plan and a political shield to defend the BJP”.