KOLKATA, Oct 8 : The CBI conducted searches at the residence of West Bengal minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim on Sunday in connection with the agency’s ongoing probe in the multi-crore cash-for-municipalities’ recruitment case.

A second team of the CBI sleuths reached the residence of the maverick Trinamool Congress legislator Madan Mitra in relation to the same probe.  Currently while the officers in the two teams of CBI are within the residences of Hakim and Mitra, the outer-ring of their residences have been totally cordoned off by the central armed police forces.  No one is allowed to enter the house or come out of it. At Hakim’s residence at Chetla in South Kolkata, the central forces personnel did not even allow the minister’s personal bodyguards and advocates to enter the residence. Even the minister’s daughter Priyadarshini Hakim was initially prevented from entering the house but was allowed later. 

The local supporters of Hakim and Trinamool Congress have started protesting against the raid & search operations at the main road adjacent to the residence of the minister in south Kolkata. 

Till the time the report was filed there was no reaction from top Trinamool Congress leadership, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.  On Thursday, the sleuths of Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the municipalities’ recruitment case, conducted raid and search operations at 12 locations, including the residence of the state food & supplies minister, Rathin Ghosh.