Many hidden secrets in the alleged multi-crore municipalities recruitment case in West Bengal is lying in the missing optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets that were used for examinations for recruitment to various post sin different municipalities, according to central investigating agency officials probing the matter.

Of the total of 14 municipalities that have come under the scanner of the central agency sleuths in this connection, authorities of six  have informed the probe officials that crucial recruitment-related documents, including the OMR sheets, have gone missing.

“It is quite natural the event of OMR sheets going missing cannot be coincidental and surely the development hints towards major irregularities in the recruitment process. Hence we have also written to the state Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Department informing the officials about the development,” a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

It is learnt that in the communique to the state Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Department, which is the nodal department for all urban civic bodies including municipal corporations and municipalities, it has been specially enquired whether the OMR sheets used in recruitment examinations have been preserved in the records of the department or have been destroyed.

Earlier in June, the CBI sleuths were able to recover some OMR sheets from some of these 14 municipalities under scanner, which gave crucial clues about irregularities in the urban civic bodies’ recruitment process. The irregularities in OMR sheets, sources added, were somewhat similar to those adopted in the irregularities in recruitment examinations for teaching and non- teaching staff in state-run schools.

The recruitments in all the 14 municipalities which are under central agency scanner were done through an outsourced agency owned by private real estate promoter Ayan Sil, who is currently in judicial custody because of his alleged involvement in the school recruitment case.

In fact the issue of municipalities’ recruitment case first surfaced when Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths recovered crucial documents on this count, while they were conducting raid and search operations at Sil’s residence in connection with the school recruitment case.