The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on Friday morning at the residences of West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sujit Bose in connection with the investigation into the irregularities in recruitment in civic bodies.
Raids were also conducted at the residences of TMC MLA Tapas Roy and former North Dumdum Municipality chairman Subodh Chakraborty.
Accompanied by central forces, ED officers raided two residences of Sujit Bose in the Lake Town area in North 24 Parganas district, an official said.
TMC MLA Tapas Roy's BB Ganguly Street residence and Chakraborty's residence in Birati was raided, the official said.
"We are conducting search operations at the residences of three TMC leaders in connection with the recruitments in civic bodies. We are also talking to the leaders," news agency PTI quoted the official as saying.
The raids come days after three officials of the probe agency were injured after they were attacked by a mob on January 5 while they were on their way to conduct searches at Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shahjahan Sheikh's residence in Sandeshkhali, making it the latest flashpoint in the tussle between West Bengal's ruling party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ED team was going to conduct raids in connection with the ration distribution scam.
ED had said the mob, which attacked them and comprised nearly a thousand people, marched at them "with an intention to cause death".
Shahjahan, considered to be a close aide of state minister Jyotipriyo Mallick who was arrested in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam, has been missing since then.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has so far refused to comment on the Sandeshkhali incident and the subsequent escape of party leader Shahjahan Sheikh saying the matter is under investigation. "The matter is under investigation, I do not have any comments," Banerjee said last week at the state secretariat.
(with PTI inputs)
