The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is conducting a marathon raid at the residence of Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha since Friday afternoon in connection with the multi-crore teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal, has tracked multiple high-value properties owned by Saha and his family members.
What has surprised the CBI is that majority of this high-value properties owned by Saha and his family members are located in Birbhum district, whereas Saha is the Trinamool legislator from Burwan Assembly constituency in his home district Murshidabad.
The latest development has given rise to the question of Saha’s possible links to the cattle smuggling scam, considering that Birbhum was the epicentre of the cattle scam, in which the ruling party’s Birbhum district President Anubrata Mondal is already under judicial custody.
Sources said that being a bordering district, Murshidabad has a deep-routed link with the cattle smuggling scam as cows smuggled in from the different cattle trading hubs in Birbhum were sent to Bangladesh via Murshidabad border.
The properties owned by Saha and his family members include land in posh areas in Bolpur-Santiniketan; land, cold storage and oil mill within the Sainthia municipality area; and a number of residential flats within the Santiniketan Development Trust area — all in Birbhum district.
The search operation by the CBI is still on. The agency is questioning Saha about the sources of the funds used to purchase the properties.
Meanwhile, the CBI is yet to track Saha’s two cellphones, which he threw into a pond adjacent to his house on Friday night.