ED raids homes of Bengal officials in four districts

ED officials knocked on the doors of govt officials and office-bearers of zila parishads and panchayats in four districts of Bengal and seized what it said were incriminating documents linking some of them to anomalies in MGNREGS payments and issuance of fake job cards. The coordinated search of homes across six locations included an embarrassing moment for the central agency when a team questioned a wrong functionary. Another team questioned deputy magistrate Sanchayan Pan, a nodal officer for MGNREGS, at his residence for around four hours. The agency also searched his home in Kolkata. ED interrogated for six hours Beldanga gram panchayat official Rathindranath Dey, who had been suspended earlier. Birupakkha Mitra, a former BDO of Beldanga-I, had filed a police complaint against some panchayat executives for alleged financial misappropriation and faking job cards.