The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted simultaneous searches in at least 11 locations, including a residential building belonging to West Bengal minister Sujit Bose, in Kolkata and adjoining areas in connection with the alleged irregularities in recruitment to 16 municipalities of the state, officials said.

The property in Salt Lake’s Sector 1, linked to Sujit Bose, who holds the Fire and Emergency Services portfolio, houses the minister’s camp office, the agency said.

The TMC minister, however, accused the central agency of “targeting him politically ahead of elections”.

“They (the Central agencies) conduct these raids every time there’s an election knocking on the door. These visits are meant for leaders belonging to the Opposition parties. This is nothing new. They have raided my properties before and found nothing incriminating against me. This is a strategy to exert pressure before the polls,” Bose said, referring to the ED’s January 2024 search at two houses and an office linked to the minister in the Lake Town area of Kolkata. The ED had then said that it seized documents and a mobile phone during the 14-hour-long search.

“Let the investigating agency do its work. We will do ours. They keep talking about corruption, but fail to furnish the required evidence. The people know everything. They will give me my certificate,” the TMC leader added.

Assembly elections in West Bengal are due early next year.

On Friday, ED officials, accompanied by personnel of Central paramilitary forces, started simultaneous searches at New Alipore, Sharat Bose Road and at the residence of a councillor in the Nagerbazar area in the morning.

The probe now covers both the municipal recruitment case and a bank-fraud angle, sources in the ED said.

The agency raided premises linked to Bose in January 2024 on the basis of a CBI FIR which was registered on the direction of the Calcutta High Court.

Investigations hinge on the allegations that real estate promoter Ayan Sil, a close associate of expelled Trinamool Congress youth wing leader Shantanu Banerjee, and his agents facilitated illegal recruitments in 16 municipalities, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

According to the CBI chargesheet filed in the case, the agents took an average commission of Rs 50,000 from each beneficiary.

The chargesheet named an agent, Shamik Chowdhury, saying a number of people secured municipal jobs through this network. The investigators have since arrested several individuals as the probe widened.

“Today’s raids were aimed at collecting documents linked to the corruption charges. The office of the minister was not originally on our list,” an ED official said, adding the raids were still going on.

“So far, we have seized several OMR sheets from the minister’s office,” he said.

Also, CBI personnel also visited a house in Thanthania in central Kolkata in connection with the case.

— With PTI inputs