CBI Raids Bengal BJP MLA\'s House in Jobs Scam

Kolkata: A day after raiding the residences of several Trinamul Congress leaders including two MLAs in the West Bengal municipal recruitment scam, the CBI searched BJP legislator Partha Sarathi Chatterjee's house for over six hours and questioned him also.

This is the first time a central agency has put its lens on a saffron party leader in a scam the state. Mr Chatterjee is a BJP MLA of Ranaghat Uttar-Paschim constituency in Nadia. He was the chairman of Ranaghat Municipality for 25 years at a stretch.

His tenure included a term of 15 years during his stint in Congress and later another 10 years in TMC. In 2011, Mr Chatterjee became a TMC MLA from Ranaghat Uttar-Paschim but lost in 2016 to Congress.

He switched to BJP from TMC ahead of the Assembly Election in 2021 and won from the same seat. On Monday morning a CBI team raided his residence as part of its statewide drive and grilled him till afternoon.

Mr Chatterjee later said, "CBI wanted to know some information from me. But I told them I have no details about it." He however acknowledged knowing the arrested accused, Ayan Seal, whose firm was involved in the scam.