More Trouble for Partha Chatterjee? Arrested Youth TMC Leader Makes Explosive Claims Against Mamata Banerjee's Former Minister

Primary Recruitment Scam: No-sign of relief for former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, who is accused of being one of the 'wannabes' of the illegal recruitment cycle in exchange for money in the education sector, after the ED on Saturday arrested Trinamool youth leader Kuntal Ghosh from his Chinar Park apartment in connection with illegal recruitments in state-run primary schools. After the preliminary investigation, the ED or Enforcement Directorate claimed that Ghosh passed on around Rs 15 crore to the former minister.

According to sources, Ghosh broke down during interrogations and besides confessing his involvement in accepting money for arranging illegal recruitment, he also informed that a major portion of the proceeds collected by him was passed on to Chatterjee. He had also named one Gopal Dalpati as a witness to his handing over the amount to Chatterjee. This confession by Ghosh became yet another strong point of argument of the central agency counsel to plead for extension of Chatterjee's judicial custody. 

According to Kuntal Ghosh's statement, he handed over the money to the former minister's personal secretary, sometimes at Chatterjee's Naktala office, sometimes at a restaurant in a shopping mall near his residence. Ghosh was questioned following a statement given to the CBI by Tapas Mondal, president of All Bengal Teachers' Training Achievers' Association (ABTTAA), an umbrella organisation of the private teachers' training institutes in West Bengal, that Ghosh received a massive amount of Rs 19 crore in various phases relating to the scam. 

Shantanu Banerjee, another ruling party youth leader close to Trinamool Congress youth leader Kuntal Ghosh, was summoned on Wednesday. According to the sources of the investigating agency, they have received information that Shantanu is also involved in the SSC recruitment scam. Shantanu's house in Hooghly was raided and many documents related to a recruitment scam were recovered. Tapas Mondal was also called on this day. ED sources claim that Tapas and Shantanu were questioned for a long time in front of Kuntal Ghosh. That question session was also videographed.