WB teacher recruitment scam: TMC’s Santanu Banerjee sent to 11-day ED custody

Trinamool Congress (TMC) youth wing leader Santanu Banerjee who was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam case, has been sent to the custody of the central agency for 11 days.

The TMC youth leader was produced in the City session court on Monday by ED. He will be produced again before the court on March 24 after his 11 days of ED custody. ED, on Friday, arrested Santanu Banerjee after interrogating him for eight hours in Kolkata.

The case was registered on the orders of the Calcutta High Court against the then Minister-in-charge, Department of School Education, West Bengal, and others on the allegations of illegal appointment of Assistant Teacher for classes of 11th and 12th standard.

It was further alleged that the then Advisor of West Bengal Central School Service Commission was part of the network which was involved in illegally accommodating undeserving candidates for appointment in SSC scam cases.

Former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee are facing a probe into the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam.

Last year, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) had filed a prosecution complaint against eight accused including Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee in the Teachers Recruitment Scam in West Bengal before the PMLA Special Court, Kolkata. In October 2022, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 12 persons, including the former chairman of the WBCSSC, Subiresh Bhattacharya, in connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers through the WBSSC.

The CBI also named a former assistant secretary of the WBCSSC, an ex-advisor, two former program officers of the commission, and six others in the chargesheet submitted before an Alipore special judge.

The accused in the chargesheet were identified as Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kumar Saha, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Parna Bose, Samarjit Acharya, Prasanna Kumar Roy, Pradip Singh, Jnui Das, Md Azad Ali Mirza, Imam Momin and Rohit Kumar Jha.