Kolkata, Nov 12 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team probing the multi-crore municipalities job scam in West Bengal have now summoned BJP's Ranaghat Uttar-Paschim constituency legislator Parthasarathi Chatterjee for interrogation.
Sources aware of the development said that Chatterjee, who represents the seat in Nadia district, has been asked to be present at CBI’s Nizam Palace office in central Kolkata on Friday with some relevant documents.
Repeated attempts to contact Chatterjee for his reaction failed as he remained incommunicado.
Sources said that Ranaghat Municipality in Nadia district is one of the urban civic bodies in the state that is under the CBI scanner for irregularities in recruitment for various posts there.
Since many of these recruitments were done while Chatterjee was running the show at Ranaghat Municipality, hence, the sleuths have felt the necessity of questioning him in the matter.
It is learnt that such irregularities were made in recruitments done since 2014.
In October, the CBI also questioned the Chief Executive of Ranaghat Municipality at its Nizam Palace office. The questioning was based on the specific evidence tracked by the investigating officials regarding several irregular recruitments made in both these municipalities against hefty cash payments. These illegal recruitments were mainly made for the post of drivers, helpers, health workers and cleaning assistants.
Earlier, the CBI sleuths have also procured similar recruitments done in the same period for three other municipalities, namely Halisahar, Kamarhati, North Dum Dum and South Dum Dum, all in North 24 Parganas district.
In July this year, the CBI claimed to have tracked the involvement of Rs 200 crore of illegal proceeds in the 1,814 illegal recruitments done in 15 municipal bodies in West Bengal since 2014. The central agency officials also claimed to have secured definite clues that private promoter Ayan Sil and his associates had almost the entire share of this Rs 200 crore of ill-gotten proceeds, considering that all these 1,814 illegal recruitments were done through outsourced agency ABS Infozon Private Ltd, a corporate entity owned by Sil.