School job case: More bank accounts linked to Manik Bhattacharya surface

Kolkata, July 28 (IANS) In a fresh case against Trinamool Congress legislator and former president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) Manik  Bhattacharya in the cash-for-school-job-posting, several other bank accounts linked to him, his family members and close associates have come under the scanner of the CBI.

Sources said that as many 61 bank accounts have come under scanner of the central agency sleuths. The CBI is examining them to track the questionable inward and outward remittances through them.

Sources further said that in the fresh round of interrogation in this new case, Bhattacharya had admitted his association with as many as 25 such bank accounts.

"Additional details will be revealed once the details of inward and outward remittances are examined," a CBI associate said.

Bhattacharya, along with his wife and son, is already serving judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the multi- crore school recruitment case in West Bengal.

The new development has revealed that the irregularities were not related to selection of ineligible candidates against cash but also to ensure their postings in native districts against payments.

CBI has already filed a fresh FIR against Bhattacharya in case of the new cash-for-school-job- posting case. The probe has been initiated by the CBI following an order from the Calcutta High Court's single- judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, where the latter has also directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to get involved in investigation.

In the 99- page FIR filed against Bhattacharya and unknown officials of WBBPE, CBI has maintained that the focus of the investigation in the new case is in relation to accepting money for selected candidates posting in the schools in their native districts. The rate-charts were prepared on the basis of distance of posting school from the residence of the candidates. The CBI sleuths doubt that Bhattacharya was assisted by some top officials of WBBPE and hence the FIR has been filed against unknown board officials also.