Overview

• Enforcement Directorate teams raided at least 11 locations in and around Kolkata, including Sujit Bose’s Salt Lake office and residence, in a probe into alleged municipal hiring irregularities.
• Searches also targeted a jewellery company and a chartered accountant linked to an alleged Rs 1,200 crore bank-loan fraud that investigators say used fictitious firms to secure loans from about 25 banks.
• Locations named by officials included Salt Lake, Nagerbazar, Kankurgachi, Lake Town, Girish Park and Sarat Bose Road, with searches continuing from early Friday.
• Residences of South Dum Dum municipality vice-chairman Nitai Dutta and an auditor in Kankurgachi were among the premises searched, and ED teams were escorted by CAPF personnel.
• The municipal probe stems from a Calcutta High Court–directed CBI FIR, and the CBI previously told the court it found irregularities in more than 1,800 appointments across 17 civic bodies since 2014.