ED to court: Letter to CM on jobs scam found at TMC MLA premises

The ED arrested Bhattacharya on October 11, following which the Special Court remanded him in ED custody for 14 days. Bhattacharya headed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education for over 10 years from 2011, before he was asked to step down on the orders of the High Court on June 20.

“That the documents seized during the course of searches conducted at the premises of Shri Manik Bhattacharya under panchnama dated 22.07.2022 revealed that Shri Manik Bhattacharya was in receipt of a letter which was also addressed to the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The contents of the said letter revealed that illegal amounts to the tune of Rs 7 lacs each were taken from 44 candidates in lieu of offering them the job of teachers. It was also revealed that the said amounts were collected by one General Secretary, West Bengal Pradesh Trinamool Youth Congress committee. Shri Manik Bhattacharya was confronted with this document on 27.07.2022 and also on 10.10.2022… That Shri Manik Bhattacharya gave contradictory replies on both the occasions and tried to mislead the investigation and did not reveal the truth of the matter…,” the submission read.

When contacted, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “We have no comment to make on this so-called letter or the ED submission. Until and unless we come to know why the ED wrote all this, we cannot comment on this.”

Bhattacharya’s counsel Anirban Guhatbakurta said, “We have not seen the ED submission yet. So, we cannot comment on that.”

The ED submission also stated that during searches at Bhattacharya’s premises on August 22, allegedly “incriminating documents and digital evidences” were retrieved that point to his alleged involvement in the school jobs scam.

The submission also highlighted that a company owned by Bhattacharya’s son received around Rs 2.64 crore from 530 private teacher-training institutes between October 2018 and April 2019 “in the name of services rendered”. The company, the ED said, had entered into an agreement with the Bengal Teachers Training Colleges Association for “upgradation of their existing infrastructure and introduction of …courses”.

The ED said their investigation revealed that no services were provided to these institutes nor was the money refunded.

“This was solely an act of influencing and abusing the power of the post of president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education by Shri Manik Bhattacharya…” the submission read.

The ED also alleged that “huge amounts” of money were deposited in the bank accounts of the family members of Bhattacharya and that he “remained evasive” when questioned about the “source of such funds”.

The submission also claimed that the names of candidates who applied for teaching jobs, along with their roll numbers, were available in a CD seized from Bhattacharya’s premises. Out of 61 such names, 51 candidates were selected.

On June 20, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered Bhattacharya’s removal from the post of president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, holding him responsible for illegalities committed in the appointment of teachers in state-run and aided primary schools.