On Day II of the crackdown on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited officials involved in one of eastern India?s biggest scams, sleuths on Thursday targeted the offices and homes of senior officers, including a general manager of the West Bengal Telecom Circle (WBTC).

The scam, being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), involves a sum of Rs 400 crore.

The detectives searched the offices and homes of some Calcutta Telephone (CalTel) officers, all accused of misappropriating funds by producing fake cable procurement papers.

Divided into 12 groups, the officers of CBI?s anti-corruption wing carried out the raids simultaneously on the houses and offices of the accused, giving them no opportunity to tamper with documents.

?We have searched the general manager?s Garia residence and recovered some documents. We will conduct raids next on the homes of a number of officers of different CalTel exchanges across the city,? said a CBI officer, adding: ?Arrests can be made any moment.?

Wednesday saw the first phase of the crackdown on CalTel and WBTC officials. The sleuths raided the houses and offices of six officers.

They recovered and seized cash and deposit certificates worth Rs 1.20 crore from the Barrackpore home of an accounts officer of CalTel?s Bhupen Bose Avenue office, in north Calcutta.

On Thursday, CBI sleuths searched the officer?s locker and recovered savings bonds worth Rs 60 lakh.

At the head office of CalTel in BBD Bag, it was discovered on Thursday morning that eight almirahs had already been broken open.

A number of important files, documents and computer hard discs were missing. A case was lodged with Hare Street police station.

?Those who broke open the almirahs had no intention of stealing cash. They specifically targeted the documents, in which important data was stored,? said a CalTel official.

?We are sorting out what was stolen, and it is being verified whether the missing documents have any link with the scam or not,? he added.

According to detectives, the money had been siphoned off from government funds in five years between 1997 and 2001. The misappropriation was noticed one-and-a-half-years ago, during the CalTel annual audit.