Bengal municipality job case: CBI tracks multiple accounts used to divert proceeds

Kolkata, July 11 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have tracked at least 25 bank accounts opened in the name of third parties, which were used for inward and outward remissions of the ill-gotten proceeds in the municipalities’ recruitment case in West Bengal, said sources on Thursday.

A close examination of these bank accounts revealed that multiple high-value inward remissions, each amounting to a few lakhs, were credited to these accounts and were also debited from those accounts within hours.

On questioning the official account holders, the Central agency sleuths came to know that they were either the existing or past employees of the corporate entity owned by the arrested private promoter Ayan Sil, also a co-accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school- job case.

The CBI officials interrogated some of these official account holders who confessed that they were forced by Sil to open the accounts. They were also forced to submit entire supporting documents like passbooks, chequebooks and even debit cards to Sil. The official account holders had no authority to operate those accounts, sources added.

The second interesting factor in the scam, as revealed by the investigating officials, is how a section of the middlemen, all linked to Sil, used this process to earn hefty amounts from two avenues.

The first income was a commission from the recipients or the ultimate beneficiaries or the recipients of the proceeds in the alleged scam. At the same time, this section of agents also collected commissions from those candidates after they got appointment letters.

The scam allegedly took place in multiple civic bodies between 2014 and 2018.