Bengal job case: CBI gets details from 2 more civic agencies

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has received details of recruitment carried out by two more municipalities as part of a probe into the civic job scam in West Bengal, sources said on Thursday.

Under a scanner in the alleged cash-for-job scam, the Halisahar municipality in North 24 Parganas district and the Ranaghat municipality in Nadia district have given details of the posts filled by them since 2014, the sources said.

In July, the CBI claimed to have tracked involvement of Rs 200 crore of illegal proceeds in the 1,814 irregular recruitment done in 15 municipal bodies in West Bengal since 2014.

Last month, the CBI had questioned the chief executives of Halisahar municipality and Ranaghat municipality at the central agency’s Nizam Palace office in central Kolkata.

The questioning was based on evidence allegedly pointing toward irregular recruitment made in both these municipalities against hefty cash payments, the sources said.

These illegal recruitment were mainly made for the post of drivers, helpers, health workers and cleaning assistants, the sources said.

Earlier, the CBI sleuths collected hiring details from three other municipalities - Kamarhati, North Dum Dum and South Dum Dum - all in the North 24 Parganas district.

In July, the central agency claimed gathering clues suggesting that private promoter Ayan Sil and his associates got almost the entire share of this Rs 200 crore proceeds of the scam, considering that all these 1,814 illegal recruitment in 15 civic agencies were done through outsourced agency ABS Infozon Private Limited, a corporate entity owned by Sil.

Besides Sil, two of his close associates Soumik Chowdhury and Debesh Chakraborty had been identified as the major recipients of the proceeds of crime.

Both of them have been named in the chargesheet filed by CBI in a Special Court in Kolkata.