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WB school recruitment scam: ED grills TMC’s Saayoni Ghosh for over 10 hours
Saayoni was summoned by the ED on June 30 around 11:30am. Ghosh, a Bengali actress with no political background, succeeded TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as state president of the youth wing in June 2021
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned Trinamool Congress (TMC) youth wing president Saayoni Ghosh for more than 10 hours at its Kolkata office in connection its probe into the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal, people familiar with the matter said.
Saayoni was summoned by the ED on June 30 around 11:30am. She reached the office before time. The questioning continued even after 10pm, said the people.
Ghosh, a Bengali actress with no political background, succeeded TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as state president of the youth wing in June 2021.
“I was campaigning (for the upcoming panchayat polls). I was asked to come here (at the ED’s office). I have come physically and I intend to cooperate to the best of my abilities,” Ghosh told reporters in the morning.
“She was called for questioning after her name surfaced multiple times during interrogation of a former TMC youth wing leader who is now in custody. Sayooni was asked to appear along with income tax returns for the last 10 years and property related documents,” said an ED official.
“Today they had asked me to bring some basic documents. They (ED officials) said they will call me again. They said they need some details about some documents. I have cooperated 100%. I hope they are more or less satisfied. If i need to come 100 times and face the questioning for 24 hours,” she told reporters after coming out of the agency’s office after almpost 11 hours of grilling.
On May 20, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned Abhishek Banerjee for almost 10 hours in connection with the alleged recruitment scam.
Banerjee’s interrogation was ordered by the Calcutta high court after his name was mentioned by Kuntal Ghosh, a former TMC state general secretary who was arrested by ED on January 21.
Kuntal Ghosh was expelled from TMC around two months after his arrest.
On May 30, the ED arrested Sujaykrishna Bhadra, a prime suspect who claimed to be an employee of Banerjee.
Bhadra is suspected to be involved in huge monetary transactions made by three companies. Money from the alleged bribe-for-job scam was laundered through these companies, ED officials suspect.
In May 2022, Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, his close friend Arpita Mukherjee and several senior officials of the education department have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the scam.
The suspected involvement of TMC leaders surfaced when the ED arrested Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee in July last year. Chatterjee was dropped from the government and suspended from TMC by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Jiban Krishna Saha, the TMC legislator from Burwan in Murshidabad district, was arrested by CBI on April 17.
