After being questioned by the CBI, Bengal minister Firhad Hakim said, "I am no thief, BJP is using agencies to harass me."

 After being questioned by the CBI, Bengal minister Firhad Hakim said, "I am no thief, BJP is using agencies to harass me."

Following a questioning and search by the CBI at his several sites in various parts of the state, West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim said on Sunday that he is not a thief and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of employing the national authorities to harass him. 

In conjunction with its investigation into suspected irregularities in recruitments made by municipal authorities, the CBI today questioned the West Bengal minister and searched a number of places in the state, according to PTI.

In the Mamata Banerjee administration, Hakim serves as both the mayor of Kolkata and the minister of urban development and municipal affairs.

In the early hours of the morning, a CBI team and a sizable detachment of federal troops arrived to the West Bengal minister's home in the Chetla neighborhood in south Kolkata.

"We asked him whether he was aware of any anomalies in the hiring procedure. Some papers were confiscated, a CBI official was cited as saying by PTI.

The home of Madan Mitra, a former minister for West Bengal and the MLA representing Kamarhati in the North 24 Parganas location, in the Bhowanipore region, was also searched by a CBI team.

"The investigations have shown that Mitra had a specific role in the hiring procedures made in Kamarhati Municipality," said the official.

According to the authorities, the CBI also searched the homes of former Kanchrapara Municipality Chairman Sudama Roy, former Halisahar Township Chairman Angshuman Roy, while former Krishnanagar Municipality Chief Ashim Ghosh.

A spokesperson for the CBI stated "the agency today conducted searches around 12 places, involving Kolkata, Kanchrapara, Barrackpore, Halisahar, Dumdum, North Dumdum, Krishnanagar, Taki, Kamarhati, Chetla and Bhowanipore, at the premises of certain persons, including public servants in an ongoing investigation of a case." 

The TMC condemned the incident and said it was an effort in vain to draw attention away from its ongoing protest outside the Raj Bhavan over demands for government funding.

The BJP's Samik Bhattacharya denied the accusations, asking, "If the TMC has nothing to hide, why are they afraid of the ED and CBI?"

"Whenever the ED or CBI summons TMC leaders, they protest and claim the organizations are acting for political reasons. However, the TMC is really very corrupt, with almost every politician facing some kind of charge, according to Bhattacharya, as quoted by PTI.

The CPI(M) has also claimed widespread corruption in municipal entities' hiring practices.

Sujan Chakraborty, a member of the CPI(M) central committee, allegedly said that "the central agencies stepped in as the state CID failed."

The CBI detained Hakim and Mitra in connection with the Narada sting operation case in 2021. The CBI also detained Mitra in connection with the Saradha chit fund fraud in 2014.