Bengal municipal job case: Marathon grilling at ED office of present and former chairpersons

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths probing the multi-crore municipalities’ recruitment case in West Bengal are grilling the present chairman of one urban civic body and the former chairman of another municipality since Tuesday morning.

The current chairman of Baranagar Municipality in North 24 Parganas district Aparna Moulik was the first to enter the ED’s Salt Lake office in the northern outskirts of Kolkata at around 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Soon after that the former chairman of Titagarh Municipality, also in North 24 Parganas district Prashanta Chowdhury, also entered the central office and his questioning is still on.

It is learnt that Moulik also appeared at the ED office on Monday and faced marathon grilling on that day.

Sources said that since there were inconsistencies in the statements given by her, Moulik was asked to appear at the ED office again on Tuesday and face another round of questioning.

It is learnt that both Moulik and Chowdhury are known to be extremely close confidants of West Bengal Minister, Jyotipriya Mallick, who had recently been arrested in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal.

Since Mallick was also the district president of Trinamool Congress for North 24 Parganas for a long time, ED sleuths are also probing whether the arrested minister had some connections with the municipalities’ recruitment irregularities besides his alleged involvement in the ration distribution case.

The ED became suspicious after studying the patterns of the cases, geographical locations of the municipalities and the peak time of the irregularities.

The central agency had identified 10 municipalities where the recruitment-related irregularities had been the most. Out of these, seven are in North 24 Parganas district.

Going by the pattern of the recruitment irregularities, the ED has noted that the cases took place when Mallick was the Trinamool President of North 24 Parganas district, besides holding the ministerial portfolio.