Kolkata, Apr 20 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has got permission from a special court here to send the two cellphones of Trinamool Congress legislator Jiban Krishna Saha for forensic test.

Saha, who was arrested by the CBI on April 17 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore scam in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools, had thrown his two cellphones in a pond adjacent to his residence when the CBI had gone there to raid his place.

The two phones were fished out of the water after a lot of efforts, and on Thursday the CBI got the permission from the court to send them for forensic test.

Although the CBI expects the two cellphones to contain sufficient clues about Saha's involvement in the recruitment scam, they doubt how much of it can be retrieved given that they were inside the water for a long time.

According to experts, if the hardware of the two phones remains intact, the process of recovering the data will be easier.

The CBI has already frozen 10 bank accounts of Saha. Sources said that in the next step, the CBI will summon the officials of the bank branches where these accounts were held for obtaining the transaction detais.

The CBI is currently questioning Saha about the sources of his funds for purchasing high-end property in different parts of Birbhum district in the form of land, residential flats and oil mills, among others.

The CBI, sources said, is quite intrigued as to how the arrested MLA managed to procure properties at a price much lower than the prevailing market rate.