‘Pained by ED raid on Swamiji’s birth anniv’

Kolkata: State Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose on Tuesday said that he had been pained by the surprise search operation conducted by ED at his residence on January 12 in connection with a municipal recruitment scam.

January 12 was Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary and the minister was scheduled to attend several programmes. “The ED shouldn’t have come for a search operation on that day. I was scheduled to attend 12 programmes that also included the unveiling of a statue of Swamiji. All the programmes were cancelled.

I was confined for 14 hours and so much valuable time was wasted. I was pained with the ED search operation on that particular day and had requested them to come another day as we all have our emotions for Swami Vivekananda,” Bose said on the sidelines of a programme to pay tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 127th birth anniversary. South Dum Dum municipality is a civic body whose name has cropped up in connection with a municipal recruitment scam. Bose was earlier the vice-chairman of the municipality. The ED wanted to know from Bose whether he was aware of any irregularities that had taken place during his stint

with the civic body.