Bengal school job case: ED gets fresh evidence against 4 SSC officials

by IANS |

Kolkata, Feb 3 (IANS) Additional trouble seems to be brewing for four former top officials of different wings attached to the West Bengal education department.

These four former officials have been named as accused in the cash-for-school job case, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has got additional proof of their direct involvement in the irregularities allegedly for financial gains.

Sources aware of the development said that the ED had already detailed the fresh findings in the matter in a supplementary charge sheet filed at a special court in Kolkata in the closing hours of February 1.

These four former top officials are the ex-president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, former chief of the screening committee of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), former WBSSC chairman and former vice-chancellor of the University of North Bengal S Bhattacharya and former WBSSC secretary Ashok Kumar Saha.

Sources said that in the new points highlighted in the fresh supplementary charge sheet by the ED, details of the connection between these four officials, especially Sinha, with accused middleman Prasanna Roy had been elaborated.

The trial process in the ED-registered case at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata began last month.

Besides the ED, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also started a parallel probe in the matter.

In subsequent charge sheets filed by ED in the case, a total of 53 people have been named as accused, which include 29 individuals and 24 corporate entities and trusts.

Besides these four officials, the other heavyweight individuals named as accused are the former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, his close aide Arpita Mukherjee, and his son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya among others.

The Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, a trust named after Chatterjee's deceased wife is also named in the ED charge sheet as an accused entity. It is alleged that the ill-proceeds were shown as donations to this particular trust and thus diverted.