More than 100 Trinamool Congress leaders, including Ministers, MLAs and MPs, are under the lens of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate in the “cash for jobs” scam probe which has already put three MLAs behind bars, and the numbers may go up in the near future. The agencies are probing documents which ostensibly show that TMC leaders sent lists of candidates for “favour of selection”.
On Thursday, documents surfaced which show Aparupa Poddar, the two-term Arambagh MP who was earlier seen in the 2014 Narada video accepting cash, had recommended names of candidates on her MP’s official letterhead. Documents submitted to Calcutta High Court by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission show one of the candidates recommended by her, Abu Naser Ahmed Khan, had actually scored 9 marks only while his published marks was shown as 54, an increase of 45 marks.
Tarunjyoti Tewari, Calcutta High Court advocate and State Vice-President of the BJP’s youth wing, the BJYM, tweeted images of the documents tagging both the Trinamool Congress’s official twitter handle as well as Poddar herself, saying: “@AITCofficial Leader and Arambag MP @AparupaPoddar recommended a few names for Jobs in GR C. In terms of the order of Hon’ble Justice Gangopadhay,manipulated OMRs have been uploaded by SSC. Actual Score and manipulated scores are appearing there. She must be arrested in this case.”
Tewari was immediately threatened with a lawsuit by the Trinamool leader. Poddar put out her own tweet which said: “These documents are coming from a BJP leader not from a Govt authority. And moreover the genuinity of the documents has not been verified by any investigating agencies, moreover if CBI would have found minimum merit then they would have arrested me by this time. You are not a dictator of CBI nor the director general. If I want to be president of USA today that won’t happen. An unauthenticated document cannot be evidence in accordance with The Evidence Act 1872.”
On Tuesday, on a writ petition alleging police inaction filed by Tarunjyoti Tewari, the Calcutta High Court had ordered had ordered a CBI inquiry against MLA Tapas Saha. The State CID was already probing allegations against Tapas Saha, the lawmaker from Tehatta in Nadia district, for cheating in the name of facilitating appointments. It was alleged that Saha took Rs 5 crore in 2018 on the false promise of giving jobs in the education sector.
West Bengal’s Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, also tweeted images of letters he attributed to Trinamool leaders.
Last July, Partha Chatterjee, Minister and TMC Secretary-General and considered the senior-most in the party after party supremo Mamata Banerjee herself, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) teacher recruitment scam. The then State Commerce and Industries Minister, considered one of the tallest leaders in Trinamool, was arrested after 19 hours of interrogation on irregularities in the recruitment of teachers during the period he was the West Bengal Education Minister (2014-2021). More than Rs 49 crore in hard cash and Rs 5-crore worth of jewellery was recovered from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of Chatterjee.
Currently, three MLAs, Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya who is the MLA of who is an MLA from Nadia district and president of West Bengal School Service Commission for 10 uninterrupted years, and Jiban Krishna Saha, MLA from Burwan in Nadia district are under arrest. Saha was arrested on Monday after being grilled by the CBI for over 65 hrs. Sources in the CBI said that the agency is currently investigating transactions between the MLA and job seekers, totaling approximately Rs 300 crore.
During the search of Saha’s home — which lasted more than 65 hours — the CBI seized six bags containing documents of candidates, as well as admit cards, a hard disk, and a pen drive. The CBI claims that the TMC MLA allegedly received bribes ranging from Rs 6-15 lakh per candidate in exchange for facilitating illegal appointments in State Government-run schools. The CBI suspects that this arrangement involved more than 3,000 job seekers and unsuccessful candidates.
As the raids were being conducted, Saha reportedly threw a mobile phone into the pond adjacent to his residence. The CBI, though, was able to retrieve the phone and it has now been added to the list of seized items.
The Trinamool Congress has expelled two of its youth wing leaders — Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee — who were arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) for their alleged involvement in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam. The ED, meanwhile, has said that the two worked together to “facilitate illegal selection and appointment of teachers”.
Currently, more than 15 people are in custody for their alleged role in West Bengal’s education scam.
