ED raids several places in Hooghly

Kolkata: The ED conducted raids at different locations of the neighbouring Hooghly district on Saturday in search of properties belonging to the arrested and now expelled Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shantanu Banerjee as part of its investigation into the alleged cash for school jobs scam, an official of the agency said.

The ED sleuths were divided into at least six teams and raided properties allegedly owned by Banerjee at Balagarh, Bandel, Chinsurah and other areas in West Bengal’s Hooghly district from Saturday morning, he said.

“As of now nothing much was found from inside the properties belonging to Shantanu. We had to break open the locks of two flats in Bandel and Chinsurah. The lock on the main door of a guest house registered under the accused’s name was also broken,” the official said.

The ED could not find anything of that significant which could help them in taking the investigation to the next level, he added.

“The search operations are still on, It may take a few more hours to be completed,” the official added.

Banerjee is in the custody of the Central probe agency.

He was expelled from the ruling Trinamool Congress soon after his arrest by ED.