Kolkata: Rs 7-8 lakh – this was the rate that the middlemen and employees of the West Bengal Education Department allegedly paid to job aspirants for primary teacher posts in government-aided schools. But the lack of money did not always translate into the promised job.
The Enforcement Directorate’s 172-page chargesheet, filed before a judge on Monday against former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, included “common”, “small time” people for allegedly “cheating” and “extortion”. has been told about.
The suspended Trinamool Congress veteran, once a trusted aide of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been in jail since July as an accused in the so-called School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam. He was arrested after tens of crores of cash and jewelery was stolen confiscated From the premises of his close aide and co-accused Arpita Mukherjee. So farThe ED has attached assets worth around Rs 103 crore allegedly linked to the pair.
Submitted in a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata, the chargesheet, read by ThePrint, contains statements of some startling witnesses – backed with bank records – to show how job-seekers was offered the positions for cash during Chatterjee’s tenure, from 2014 until his removal this year.
One of the targets of the alleged scam was the widow of Shefali Mandal, an assistant teacher at Ballavpur Primary School in Malda.
She claimed that when she approached the education department in 2017 to file a complaint about her posting and salary, an officer under Chatterjee’s officer on special duty (OSD) offered her a bargain which she could not refuse. Could: A job for her twin daughters. 8 lakhs worth Rs. According to Mandal, an official of the education department “close to Partha Chatterjee” stayed at his house for the night and collected money – but his daughters never got a job.
The ED chargesheet states, “Shefali Mandal’s cheating is a living example of how the employees of the Education Department looted and extorted money from common people in the name of getting jobs.”
WhatsApp exchanges are also included in the chargesheet in connection with the alleged job racket for cash, in which TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya has been implicated. In addition, it gives details of how shell companies were allegedly created to launder “tainted money” from the alleged scam.
Meanwhile, Chatterjee has maintained that the allegations against him are false.
When he was produced in a special court on 16 September during the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hearing in the same case, he broke down and said that he was the victim of a conspiracy.
“I am an MBA, I have a doctorate with a spotless career as a public servant. It is a conspiracy to put me behind bars. I am very sick, I take a lot of medicines. Who will help me,” They said.
When ThePrint asked his lawyer Sukanya Bhattacharya about the latest details in the ED chargesheet, he said there were no specific allegations against Chatterjee.
“Except for cash recovery, there is nothing worrying in the chargesheet. The allegations leveled by ED are very childish.
Chatterjee was on Wednesday sent to judicial custody till October 5 in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case related to the same alleged scam.
‘Purchase’ of primary teacher posts
The statements of witnesses given in the ED chargesheet detail how the job-seekers allegedly emptied their savings and borrowed heavily to ‘buy’ jobs in West Bengal government-run schools.
While jobs didn’t work out for some – as was the case with Shefali Mondal – others apparently got what they asked for.
One such case was that of battery shop owner Jayant Biswas and his wife Papi Mukherjee at Baghda in North 24 Parganas district.
Biswas told the investigating officers that he dug into his retirement savings and spent Rs 7.5 lakh in 2017 to get his wife a job as an assistant primary teacher.
He said he gave the money to a person named Chandan Mohan, who, according to the chargesheet, was “an agent who had high liaison with influential persons to hire primary teachers.”
The middleman apparently gave Papaya tips to clear the entrance test: he asked her to answer only those questions that she knew perfectly and asked to submit blank OMR sheets for the remaining questions. He passed the exam and got a job.
Another job aspirant, Samar Kumar Halder, said he paid Rs 7 lakh in two installments to a middleman named Abani Mandal, who worked with the Municipal Service Commission on AJC Bose Road, Kolkata. Mandal reportedly assured Halder that he would get a job if a new panel is formed in 2018.
The name of the same middleman was also named by Sujoy Biswas, a small fish business owner, in his statement to the ED. Biswas had apparently failed the recruitment exam in 2016 and hence decided to try a different path for a teacher’s job. He claimed that he had borrowed money from his family to pay Rs 7 lakh to Abani Mandal in two installments.
WhatsApp chat shows ‘deeply corrupt system’
The alleged SSC scam has made ED headlines over several other Bengal leaders including TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya, who was suspended from the post of chairman of the state’s primary education board earlier this year.
The chargesheet includes WhatsApp exchanges purportedly retrieved from Chatterjee’s confiscated phone which indicate that he was aware of the corruption allegations against Bhattacharya. According to the ED, this indicates a “deeply corrupt system”.
A long WhatsApp message alerts Chatterjee (addressing him) Bapuor elder brother) that Bhattacharya was allegedly “taking money” from colleges and students.
“Dada, Manik Bhattacharya is taking money in every possible way. He has taken Rs 500 per student from every private B.Ed college during Kovid when the colleges were closed. The students themselves could not pay for so many colleges. Again they have asked for 500 per student. He harasses the colleges and threatens them (sic) to pay,” the message says.
“In Nadia, the primary TET (Teacher Entrance Test) interview is completed but he is asking the chairman to give a blank signed master sheet without entering the interview marks. He will work again with the money. The matter will resume, and the party will suffer. Please look into the matter,” it further urges.
The chargesheet states that this message was sent by Partha Chatterjee to Manik Bhattacharya.
When asked about the apparent misconduct described in the text by the ED, Chatterjee reportedly said that “the matter was referred to Mamik Bhattacharya and his board was in a position to act accordingly”.
‘People exploited to loot tainted money’
The ED chargesheet details four “skull companies” that allegedly operated under Chatterjee’s directions, namely Viewmore Highrise Pvt. Ltd., APA Services, Sentry Engineering Pvt Ltd., and Symbiosis Merchant Pvt Ltd.
The ED claims that these companies were started with the sole objective of “laundering tainted money derived from criminal activity of selling jobs for money”.
The chargesheet reads: “[S]People living in malls were exploited and made directors of these companies and then asked to sign company papers without their consent or knowledge.
The director of one company was the gardener and the other was Arpita Mukherjee’s driver Kalyan Dhar. (He happens to be her brother-in-law too.)
The ED has also claimed that it has evidence that Chatterjee hid illegal money received from “criminal activities”. The agency claims he created “dummy companies” by abusing his official position and social standing as a cabinet minister.
The agency has claimed that Chatterjee was “uncooperative and willfully concealing facts” in the matter of recovery.
What was the role of Arpita Mukherjee?
Partha Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee has been a key figure in the SSC scam ever since the ED recovered around Rs 50 crore in cash, gold jewelery worth over Rs 5.08 crore and allegedly incriminating documents from properties in and around Kolkata. . He was arrested along with Chatterjee on 23 July.
According to the chargesheet, she has been a close aide of the TMC leader since at least 2012, but told the agency that she has not “disclosed the truth” due to “fear for her and her mother’s safety”.
According to the chargesheet, she has alleged that all the cash and gold belong to Partha Chatterjee, and she wants to file a formal application before the court to consider this disclosure.
During its probe, the ED says it also found a letter issued by Chatterjee on February 22, 2022, related to Mukherjee’s plan to adopt a child.
The letter said Chatterjee was a “close friend” of Arpita Mukherjee and had “no objection” to adopting a child.
When asked about this, Chatterjee told the investigating officer that he used to issue certificates as public representatives to those who contacted him.
However, investigation revealed that as per the chargesheet, Mukherjee had 31 life insurance policies in which Chatterjee was named. It also states that the two have traveled to Singapore and Thailand and have stayed at the luxurious Hotel Leela in Goa on several occasions.
(Edited by Aswari Singh)
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