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ED gets court’s nod to prosecute Bengal minister Chandranath Sinha in bribe case
The court directed ED to send a notice to Bengal minister Chandranath Sinha asking him to appear before the court on September 12 so that the charges can be read out to him
Kolkata: A Kolkata court ordered the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday to summon West Bengal correctional services minister Chandranath Sinha to the court on September 12 so that charges filed against him can be read out before the trial, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
“The ED, which submitted a charge sheet against Sinha on August 6, informed the designated ED court on Wednesday that governor C V Ananda Bose’s assent, which is mandatory for prosecuting a minister, was issued on August 8,” a lawyer said, requesting anonymity.
“The court directed ED to send a notice to Sinha asking him to appear before the court on September 12 so that the charges can be read out to him. This is the standard procedure,” the lawyer added.
Sinha, the legislator from Birbhum district’s Bolpur seat, is the second state cabinet minister to face prosecution in the bribe-for-job case after former education minister Partha Chatterjee who was arrested in July 2022. He is currently in judicial custody.
ED launched an investigation against Sinha under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and recovered ₹42 lakh from his Bolpur residence in March. ED officials said Sinha could not explain the source of the cash.
The minister skipped two summons for questioning before facing the investigators on August 7, a day after the charge sheet was filed.
“ED, Kolkata Zonal Office has filed 6th supplementary prosecution complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on 06.08.2025 against Chandranath Sinha (MLA and minister-in-charge for micro, small & medium enterprises and textiles and correctional administration, West Bengal) before the Hon’ble Special Court (PMLA), Kolkata in the matter of primary teachers’ recruitment scam,” ED said in a statement on August 8.
Sinha could not be contacted on Wednesday. The TMC did not make any statement on the legal proceedings.
The investigation in this case started in May 2022 when the Calcutta high court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the appointments of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the SSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when Partha Chatterjee was the education minister. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
ED started a parallel investigation at the same time.
In January, ED framed charges against Partha Chatterjee, his associate Arpita Mukherjee, ex-state primary education board president Manik Bhattacharya and 51 others.
