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WB school recruitment scam: ₹350 crore and counting, ED tells court
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which arrested Santanu Banerjee, TMC’s youth wing leader from Hooghly district, produced him in the court, on Monday
The volume of the school recruitment scam in West Bengal, in which multiple Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders have been arrested, may run up to ₹350 crores, the Enforcement Directorate told the court on Monday.
“The volume now stands at around ₹350 crore. It may be higher,” ED counsel Phiroze Edulji said in the special court.
The federal agency, which arrested Santanu Banerjee, TMC’s youth wing leader from Hooghly district, produced him in the court, on Monday.
The meteoric rise of Banerjee from a mechanic in a mobile shop in 2015 allegedly to a wealthy businessman with multiple properties in Hooghly district registered in his and other’s names have come under the ED’s scanner. The list includes a resort, dhaba, restro bar, home stay, multiple flats and residential plots.
“Every day something shocking is coming out. The two mobile phones of Banerjee (seized by the ED) are a gold mine. They are being analysed. The court would be shocked to see the contents of the case diary,” Edulji told the court while demanding 11 days of custody of Banerjee.
Banerjee, however, told reporters that the mastermind was Kuntal Ghosh, another arrested TMC youth wing leader.
“Kuntal Ghosh is the mastermind. He is trying to divert attention so that he may move his money to other states. I am not involved. The truth would come out,” said Banerjee while being taken to the court.
Banerjee’s house in Balagarh area of Hooghly district was raided by ED in January and he has been questioned several times since then. Officials alleged that the raid led to the seizure of a list of 300 examinees who appeared for the teacher eligibility test (TET).
In May 2022, Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (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.
The ED arrested education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee on July 23 last year. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee removed Chatterjee from the government and also suspended him from the TMC. The scam took place during Chatterjee’s tenure as education minister.
TMC legislator and former president of the state primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya, was arrested by ED on October 11 last year.
