Kolkata, March 22 (IANS): A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Friday was at the residence of West Bengal Minister of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Textiles Department Chandranath Sinha in Birbhum district.

Eyewitnesses said that the team of officials were heavily escorted by the Central Armed Police Forces personnel and they arrived at the residence of the minister at around 9.45 a.m in the Nichupatti area.

As the CAPF personnel blocked the entrance gate of the building, the ED sleuths went inside. However, sources said that at that point of time the minister was not at his residence.

It is learnt that the raid & search operations were in relation to the cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.

Minister Sinha, an influential minister from the Birbhum district, was known to be a close confidant of party strongman Anubrata Mondal, who is currently in judicial custody at Tihar jail in New Delhi.

At the same time, other teams of ED officials were conducting raids and search operations at different locations in Kolkata since Friday morning in connection with the cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal. Sources said that since Friday morning the Central agency sleuths were conducting raid and search operations in at least three locations mainly concentrated in south Kolkata.

According to the sources, one of the three places, where the raid and search operations were being conducted, is the residence of transport services operator Biswarup Basu, known to be extremely close to a section of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

Trinamool Congress spokesman Dr Santanu Sen has claimed that from the ED actions at the minister’s residence it becomes even more evident that it is “election season” now.