The Trinamool Congress expelled its two leaders Shantanu Banerjee and Kuntal Ghosh days after they were arrested in connection with the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam. Notably, Banerjee was arrested on March 10 this year and Ghosh was taken into custody on January 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the case.
Last month, ED claimed that around Rs 30 crore were allegedly taken for promoting undeserving candidates as teachers. The probe agency further claimed to have found over Rs six crore in two accounts belonging to Ghosh. The ED reportedly recovered over 200 OMR sheets from Ghosh’s residence. Out of these, 30 were found to be for the TET exam 2022.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the sessions court sent Banerjee to ED custody for 11 days. Banerjee will be produced before the court on March 24. Banerjee was arrested on March 10 by the probe agency after seven hours of interrogation. The ED claimed that the TMC leader was arrested for not corporating during the investigation and also because of discrepancies in his statements.
In the court, the ED cited the statement of the accused, Tapas Mandal. In the statement, Mandal had said that Rs 19 crore were given to Ghosh on Banerjee’s instructions.
The Calcutta High Court on Monday passed an order to terminate 842 state government employees from their jobs, including a TMC functionary. The court observed that these employees were recruited through illegal means. The order was passed the order amid the ongoing investigation into a teachers’ recruitment scam. The court dismissed 842 employees from Group C post of school service commission job.
