ED searches residence of West Bengal minister Chandranath Sinha in school jobs case

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday raided the house of Trinamool minister Chandranath Sinha in Birbhum district's Bolpur in connection with its ongoing investigation into the alleged irregularities in the school recruitment scam. Sinha was earlier summoned by CBI in the cattle and coal smuggling cases.

A team of ED officials conducted marathon searches when Sinha was away from his residence. He was at his ancestral house in Murarai, around 90 km away from Bolpur. Learning about the raid, Sinha rushed back to his residence. Chandranath Sinha was questioned for more than four hours. His two sons and wife were also questioned by the ED.

The raid started on Friday morning and continued for more than nine hours at the time of going to press. The ED team reached the residence of Sinha with a huge contingent of central forces. Sinha holds the MSME and textiles portfolios.


"I have never been associated with any corruption and have not done any wrong. I learnt about the raid from my son. I will cooperate with the agency," Sinha said on Friday morning. "It is political revenge. When political campaigns are going on ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, there are raids in minister's houses. BJP cannot release their list for Bengal but they can use CBI and ED in the run-up to polls," minister Shashi Panja said.