Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) expelled two of its youth wing leaders — Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee — who had been arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) for his or her alleged involvement within the Faculty Service Fee (SSC) rip-off. The ED, in the meantime, has stated that the 2 labored collectively to “facilitate unlawful choice and appointment of lecturers”.
Asserting the expulsion of the 2 youth wing leaders at a press convention Tuesday, state minister Shashi Panja stated: “The occasion has zero tolerance in opposition to corruption. If anybody is implicated in corruption, the onus is on them to show their innocence.”
The ED arrested Santanu Banerjee on 10 March throughout interrogation. On 11 March, he was produced earlier than a particular Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA) courtroom in Kolkata, which remanded him in ED custody until 24 March. Ghosh was arrested in January this yr.
Ghosh was the secretary of the occasion’s state Youth Congress Committee, whereas Banerjee was vice-president of the All India Trinamool Youth Congress.
In July final yr, the occasion had suspended former minister Partha Chatterjee and eliminated him from all of the occasion posts following his arrest within the case. Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya are additionally in ED custody within the case.
Additionally Learn: ‘Extortion, skyrocketing revenue, ties to cattle kingpin’ — CBI cost sheet in opposition to TMC’s Mondal
ED remand copy
Santanu Banerjee’s title figured within the case with Kuntal Ghosh in January.
Within the eight-page ED remand copy positioned earlier than the particular courtroom — that ThePrint has accessed — the central company has stated 41-year-old Santanu Banerjee, a resident of Hooghly district, is an worker of West Bengal State Electrical energy Distribution Firm Restricted and earns an revenue of about Rs 2 lakh to six lakh every year.
The ED stated it seized incriminating paperwork and two Apple iPhones — from which the company extracted chats and photographs — throughout a search at his residential premises on 20 January.
“The properties recognized to this point and bought within the title of Santanu Banerjee and his members of the family and entities aren’t commensurate with the sources of his revenue. The properties so acquired… are nothing however the proceeds of crime acquired because of prison actions regarding the scheduled offences underneath PMLA, 2002.”
“Varied candidates in addition to occasion members used to handover paperwork associated to appointment of major lecturers and different associated issues to some occasion leaders and others searching for their favour and for securing jobs,” acknowledged the ED.
In line with the ED remand copy, Kuntal Ghosh “had paid an quantity of greater than Rs 1 crore in money to Santanu Banerjee for varied kind of patronage for stated unlawful actions… Santanu Banerjee and Kuntal Ghosh had been working in cahoots in perpetrating the crime of facilitating unlawful choice and appointment of lecturers”.
Tapas Mondal, a detailed aide of TMC MLA and former president of West Bengal Board of Major Schooling Manik Bhattacharya, arrested within the case final month, additionally revealed that he had “paid an quantity of greater than Rs 19 crores [sic] to Kuntal Ghosh on the directions of Santanu Banerjee…”, the ED remand copy learn.
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HC order & political slugfest
In 2019, a number of petitions had been filed within the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom in reference to a recruitment drive carried out by the West Bengal Central Faculty Service Fee in 2006. In 2021, the HC handed over the probe within the case to the CBI. The hearings within the case began in 2022 and, since then, the courtroom has cancelled appointments of over 4,000 candidates who’re accused of utilizing fraudulent means for choice.
The ED is conducting a parallel investigation within the case.
Final week, the HC ordered the cancellation of appointments of over 800 Group C workers in West Bengal government-run faculties.
Referring to the newest HC order, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whereas addressing an occasion in Kolkata Tuesday, stated, “I’d urge (the excessive courtroom) to not sack folks on the drop of a hat… If I’ve carried out something mistaken, slap me. I can’t thoughts if I’m responsible…”
The TMC has additionally raised the problem of “misuse of central businesses” within the ongoing Funds session in Parliament. On Monday, the occasion handed a decision within the Bengal meeting in opposition to what it described because the “misuse of the ED and CBI”.
In the meantime, the BJP is searching for to nook the TMC over the arrests.
Talking to ABP Ananda in his constituency, Nandigram, Tuesday, Chief of the Opposition within the Meeting Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP stated the central company will dig out proof from underground in opposition to the TMC.
“The ED has extracted chats from 10 years in the past. Even when the unlawful cash is underground, the ED will dig it out. We’ve worn out the CPI (M), we are going to wipe out the TMC,” he stated.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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