Kolkata, Sep 15: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials probing the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal, have tracked illegal transactions worth Rs 12.73 crore, which are reportedly linked to irregularities in recruitments of primary teachers in the state, in the bank accounts held by the Minister incharge of the state's correctional services as well as the micro, small, and medium enterprises and textiles departments, Chandranath Sinha, his wife and son.
The ED officials have provided the details of such fictitious transactions in its sixth supplementary charge sheet at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata last week.
On September 6, Sinha surrendered at the same court as directed by it earlier in connection with ED's investigation into the alleged irregularities in the primary school recruitment case.
Although, the ED sought the Minister's custody, the court granted him an interim bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000, subject to conditions.
The court said that although bail has been granted, Sinha will not be allowed to leave his Assembly constituency or Kolkata for the time being.
A couple of days after that, the ED filed the sixth supplementary charge sheet in the case, where the details of the fictitious transactions in the bank accounts of Sinha, his wife, and his son were mentioned.
Sources aware of the development said that ED had mentioned accounts in eight public sector commercial banks and one private sector bank, which were either individually owned by the Minister or jointly with his wife or son or both.
In the chargesheet, the ED had specifically referred to a series of cash deposits in hefty amounts in phases at a joint bank account owned by the Minister and his wife Kuntala Sinha at a Kolkata-based branch of a particular public sector commercial bank.
As mentioned by ED in the sixth supplementary charge sheet, a total of Rs 1.18 crore was deposited in phases, all in cash, at this particular bank account during the period between January 2016 and November 2019, considered as the peak period of the alleged school job scam.
In the face of questioning by the ED officials, Sinha could not give any specific answer on the sources of such funds.
The ED officials first secured the name of the Minister from the diary of the middleman, and now suspended Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh, who was later arrested by the central agency officials.
In March last year, the ED officials conducted raid and search operations at the Minister's residence at Bolpur in Birbhum district.
After the raid, the ED officials seized cash worth Rs 41 lakh and a mobile phone from Sinha's residence.
Sinha is known to be close to Trinamool Congress strongman and former district president in Birbhum, Anubrata Mondal. [VP]
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