Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate, which is probing an alleged land grab case in Kolkata, has again on Friday questioned Trinamool’s Rashbehari candidate Debasish Kumar. The agency has also sent summons to Trinamool’s Bidhannagar candidate Sujit Bose and Madhyamgram candidate Rathin Ghosh in connection to the municipal jobs-for-cash scam. Both Bose and Ghosh, ministers in the Mamata Banerjee govt, were questioned before.Kumar, the outgoing MLA and current TMC candidate for Rashbehari constituency, appeared at the CGO Complex office of the Enforcement Directorate for the second time this week. He was questioned earlier on Monday. Following a series of raids last Saturday against a company linked to land-grabbing allegations, the central agency questioned Kumar initially.On Friday, he reached the ED office around 11.30 am. While Kumar did not want to comment on any issue, he said, “I will get to know the reason only after I speak to them.” He came out of the office at 4.45 pm after nearly five hours of questioning. ED sources said he was asked to bring documents in connection to the probe.Kumar is also a member of the mayor-in-council (parks and gardens) of the KMC. According to ED sources, he was primarily asked to appear before the agency to seek clarification about some properties the agency has found out. ED officials also suspect that a nexus is constructing buildings on illegally occupied land in Kolkata and getting support from a section of workers and officials at the corporation. “The party will comment if there is anything to say,” Kumar said after coming out.In a different probe into the municipal jobs scam, the agency sent summons to Bose asking him to appear on Monday. Ghosh was also asked to appear on Wednesday. Both the summons are connected to the municipal jobs-for-cash scam the agency has been probing for last few years.Names of several Trinamool netas linked to municipalities surfaced after the recovery of OMR sheets and records of financial transactions from the office of Ayan Shil — one of the prime accused in the scam. Earlier last year, the central agency conducted searches at the office of Bose and a restaurant owned by his son. During searches, the agency seized Rs 45 lakh in unexplained cash, incriminating documents and digital devices.The agency in 2023 conducted searches at multiple locations linked to Ghosh — former chairman of the Madhyamgram municipality. ED had alleged that nearly 1,500 persons were illegally recruited by different civic bodies across the state between 2014 and 2018.
