KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress MLA and former chairman of West Bengal Board of Primary
Education, Manik Bhattacharya, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers in primary schools. Bhattacharya was arrested after being interrogated for 10 hours at the central agency’s office at Nizam Palace.
“Bhattacharya was not cooperating with the investigators. He also tried to mislead the sleuths during the interrogation,” said an ED official. The Palashipara MLA was produced at Bankshall court, where the ED sought his custody for interrogation.
Bhattacharya was earlier questioned by the CBI. The ED is tracking the money trail in the alleged scam while the CBI is looking into the irregularities said to have been committed in the recruitment.
In July, the ED arrested former minister and TMC’s secretary general Partha Chatterjee over the alleged irregularities in recruitment in primary and high schools through the School Service Commission. The Calcutta High Court had directed a probe by the central agencies into allegations that jobs were given in exchange for money.
“Bhattacharya’s name figured in the chargesheet filed against Chatterjee. We have come across evidences that indicate Bhattacharya’s involvement in the recruitment irregularities,” said another ED official.
The others arrested in the recruitment scam by the ED and CBI are former chairperson of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former SSC chairperson Subiresh Bhattacharya, former SSC advisor Shanti Prasad Sinha and former SSC secretary Ashok Kumar Saha
“We seized Bhattacharya’s cell phone, and found WhatsApp chats that are a clinching evidence of the malpractice,” another ED official said. The scam allegedly involved jobs given to many below-par candidates in exchange of lakhs of rupees while the eligible candidates were overlooked.
C’garh: 3 IAS officers raided
Raipur: ED teams on Tuesday carried out extensive raids at over 12 locations of senior Chhattisgarh government officials, including the deputy secretary in the chief minister office. Sources privy to the matter said that the raids began at around 6am at multiple premises in districts of Raipur, Durg, Korba and Mahasamund. Indications are that there are alleged cases related to money laundering and/or disproportionate assets. However, there was no official confirmation from the ED that it had raided the official residences of three IAS officers and the deputy secretary to the CM.
R71 lakh seized from Purnia SP
Patna: Sleuths of Bihar’s special vigilance unit (SVU) carried out simultaneous searches at office and residential premises of a 2014-batch IPS officer in Purnia and Patna on Tuesday in connection with disproportionate assets case. THe officer, Dayashankar, is currently posted as the superintendent of police (SP) of Purnia. During the searches at his Purnia residence, the raiding teams recovered `2.96 lakh cash and gold jewellery worth `28 lakh. In Patna, cash amounting to `1.52 lakh and jewellery worth `35 lakh were seized. Documents related to expenditure of `67 lakh were also recovered.