Following the January 5 Sandeshkhali incident in which ED officials were attacked by a mob during the search operations, a large number of central armed police force personnel accompanied the ED team during Thursday’s searches.

Among the places where ED conducted searches include a villa in New Town allegedly belonging to Prasanna Roy, who was earlier arrested by the CBI in the recruitment case and later released on bail.

Houses and flats in Mukundapur and Nayabad on the eastern fringes of Kolkata were also searched, ED officials said, adding the house of Roy’s former assistant Pradeep Singh was also raided. Premises belonging to a transport businessman, Rohit Jha, in the Nayabad area were also searched, said sources in the central agency.

“These middlemen used to collect money and transfer it to various addresses. We are conducting raids at the residences and offices used by them… One of the middlemen has accumulated properties at over 400 places in the state and we are trying to find out the source of this money. Our officers are going through the bank documents and other property-related papers,” PTI quoted an ED officer, as saying.

The officer said one of these “middlemen” was very close to former TMC minister Partha Chatterjee and MLA Jibon Saha, both arrested in the case. The alleged irregularities in the School Service Commission jobs are being probed by two central agencies. While the CBI is probing the corruption charges, the ED is probing the alleged money laundering angle in the case.

– With PTI inputs