West Bengal: ED arrests TMC youth leader in teachers recruitment scam

The CBI is probing the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021.

Kolkata, Jan 21: Trinamool Congress youth wing leader Kuntal Ghosh has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged involvement in teachers recruitment scam.

Ghosh was first detained on Saturday morning by ED sleuths following overnight search operations at his apartment in Chinar Park area and then arrested. The area, near the city airport, falls under North 24 Parganas district.

"We have arrested Kuntal Ghosh this morning for not cooperating with our officers investigating his involvement in illegal appointments in teachers recruitment scam. We will produce him at a city court today," the official told PTI.

Several documents and a diary were also seized from Ghosh's twin flats during the search operations by the ED which started on Friday morning, he added.

Later talking about Ghosh's alleged involvement in the scam, the ED personnel said that the arrested TMC leader has been involved in "collecting" money from aspirants for the teachers' jobs.

The central agency officer also hinted at the involvement of a few senior "people" in the state government for whom "Ghosh has been working and collecting money for recruiting people for the teachers' job in the state.

"It seems he has collected a huge amount of money from people in the pretext of giving them appointments for the teachers' post. He seems to be in touch with senior members of the TMC who are also involved in the scam. The investigation is still at a very preliminary stage. We still have several questions which Ghosh is required to answer," the ED officer said.

Incidentally, Ghosh had also been questioned thrice by CBI officials for his alleged role in the same scam.

Notably, former state education minister Partha Chatterjee was held in the School Service Commission recruitment for classes IX-XII, last year.

The CBI is probing the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021.

The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of Rs 5 lakh to Rs15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.