ED begins probe into Bengal municipalities recruitment case with FIR against Ayan Sil

Kolkata, May 13 (IANS) After the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), now the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched a probe into the alleged multi-crore recruitment scam in different municipalities in West Bengal by filing an FIR against real-estate promoter Ayan Sil.

Earlier, the CBI too had started its own probe into the matter by filing an FIR. In fact, it was the ED which for the first time got information about the parallel scam in municipalities recruitments while conducting raid and search operations at the residence of Sil in connection with the alleged recruitment scam in state-run schools.

In the latest supplementary charge sheet filed by the ED at a special PMLA court in Kolkata, the central agency has given details of the collections by Sil in cases of alleged irregularities in both school recruitments and municipality recruitments.

In the charge sheet, the ED has claimed that while Sil collected Rs 45 crore from candidates in case of school recruitment, he collected around Rs 35 crore for municipalities recruitment.

The process of beginning the probe into the alleged municipalities scam had faced a number of initial legal obstacles. After the Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay allowed the central agencies to launch a probe into the matter, the state government had challenged the order in the Supreme Court.

But the top court had referred the matter back to the Calcutta High Court. Recently, the state government made a fresh appeal in the Calcutta High Court's bench of Justice Amrita Sinha seeking quashing of the previous order for central agency probe.

However, on Friday, Justice Sinha's bench upheld the order passed by the bench of Justice Gangopadhyay for a central agency probe into the alleged multi-crore recruitment scam in municipalities.