The Enforcement Directorate arrested Manik Bhattacharya, a Trinamool Congress MLA, in connection with the SSC recruitment scam case, delivering another setback to the party. On the intervening nights of Monday and Tuesday, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for failing to cooperate with the agency’s investigation.
On October 10, he was questioned over conceivable irregularities in the recruitment of elementary teachers.
On the instructions of the Calcutta High Court, Manik Bhattacharya, an MLA from Palashipara, was removed from his position as head of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education in June owing to alleged irregularities in the appointment of teachers for state-run primary schools. On July 22, the ED searched his residence, and he was interrogated five days later.
The Supreme Court had granted him immunity from arrest in the CBI case till October 10. He was arrested just hours after his Supreme Court-granted legal immunity expired. After former minister Partha Chatterjee was detained, the ED summoned him for the first time. The ED seized critical papers connected to the suspected recruitment fraud during raids at Bhattacharya’s home.
Partha Chatterjee, another TMC MLA and former Minister, is already in judicial detention in this matter. On September 28, a special PMLA court denied his bail application, citing the ‘gravity and seriousness’ of the offence, and remanded him to prison until October 31.
While the ED is looking into money laundering, the Central Bureau of Investigation is looking into any abnormalities in the hiring of non-teaching workers (Group C & D), assistant teachers (Class IX-XII), and elementary school teachers. Senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee served as Education Minister during the alleged fraud’s execution.
On April 26 and May 18, he was questioned by the CBI. The ED arrested him on July 23 after conducting a 26-hour raid at his home in Kolkata. Furthermore, it has confiscated more than Rs 100 crores in cash and properties from the residence of his aide Arpita Mukherjee so far.