ED raids 6 places in West Bengal teacher recruitment case
The federal agency, probing into the money laundering involved in the recruitment scam, arrested Bhattacharya on October 11 for his alleged involvement in the swindle related to recruitment of teachers in state-run primary schools.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided at least six premises in Kolkata and its outskirts on Saturday in connection with the multi-crore school recruitment scam in West Bengal.
One of the premises, located at Mahishbathan in Salt Lake, is the office of Minerva Educational and Welfare Society. It was a teachers’ training institute which Manik Bhattacharya, the arrested Trinamool Congress MLA, used to frequent, an ED official said, seeking anonymity.
The federal agency, probing into the money laundering involved in the recruitment scam, arrested Bhattacharya on October 11 for his alleged involvement in the swindle related to recruitment of teachers in state-run primary schools. He is now in ED custody.
The institute belongs to Tapas Mondol, a close associate of Bhattacharya, the ED official said. Mondol’s house near Kolkata was also raided simultaneously on Saturday.
The institute was closed. A locksmith broke the locks and opened the shutter. ED officials seized some documents from the institute. Local residents told media that Bhattacharya used to come to the office in a taxi.
Officials also raided a flat in Amherst Street area that belongs to Bibhas Adhikary. Locals reportedly informed the ED that they had sometimes seen unidentified men entering the flat with trunks. The last time some men brought in trunks was before the festive season.
The ED had earlier found that a company owned by Bhattacharya’s son Souvik received ₹2.6 crore from around 350 private institutions, claiming that it had offered courses like BEd. The agency, however, found that no such courses were offered, suggesting that the entire amount was “proceeds of crime”.
Adhikary is suspected to have links with Acuere Consultancy Services, owned by Souvik Bhattacharya, officials said.
Manik Bhattacharya was chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education since 2011. He was removed from his post by the Calcutta high court in June after the scam surfaced.
The central agency has already found that more than 58,000 candidates were recruited as primary school teachers during Bhattacharya’s tenure. It is, however, yet to be ascertained how many of these appointments were illegal.
The remand application submitted by the ED in the court on Tuesday revealed that the officials found a letter while conducting a raid in Bhattacharya’s house on July 22.
“The contents of the letter revealed that illegal amounts to the tune of ₹7 lakh each were taken from 44 candidates in lieu of offering them the job of teachers,” stated the agency’s remand application. “It was also revealed that the said amounts were collected by one general secretary of West Bengal Pradesh Trinamool Youth Congress Committee.”
Bhattacharya is the second TMC leader to have been arrested in the case. On July 23, former state education minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested in the School Service Commission recruitment for classes IX-XII scam, in which the ED has thus far recovered cash worth around ₹50 crore.
