West Bengal School Job Scandal: ED Faces Challenge as Nine Defendants Seek Legal Relief in Kolkata Court
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Kolkata, Dec 23 (NationPress) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating a multi-crore cash-for-school job scandal in West Bengal, encountered a significant challenge on Monday when nine defendants lodged petitions at a special court in Kolkata, seeking relief from the ongoing case.
The ED was anticipated to submit the charge sheet against the accused at the special court in the latter part of Monday.
The most notable individual to submit a relief petition is Manik Bhattacharya, a member of the Trinamool Congress and the former head of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education. His family members, Shatarupa Bhattacharya (wife) and Sauavik Bhattacharya (son), were also among the nine who filed petitions for relief.
The basis for Bhattacharya’s petition was the ED’s failure to adhere to the court’s order to submit a “closure report” regarding the investigation.
A fourth individual to file a relief petition is Kuntal Ghosh, a former and currently suspended youth leader of the Trinamool Congress. His petition is based on discrepancies between the charges against him and the various charge sheets submitted by the ED.
The remaining five individuals who filed petitions are employees of corporate entities implicated in the subsequent charge sheets filed by the ED. Their argument was that they had difficulty accessing the extensive copies of the charge sheets provided to them prior to the charge framing process.
All nine individuals who submitted relief petitions were named in the later charge sheets issued by the ED. The ED presented a total of 54 names in the charge sheet, out of which 29 are individuals and the other 24 are corporate entities or trusts.
The primary trust mentioned in the charge sheet is the Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the late wife of Partha Chatterjee. The ED has asserted in the charge sheet that funds from the school job case were misrepresented as donations to the trust, thereby being misappropriated.
