WB teacher recruitment scam: Court sends TMC’s Santanu Banerjee to 11-day ED custody

Santanu Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) youth wing leader who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam case, has been detained by the central agency for 11 days.

ED produced the TMC youth leader in City session court on Monday. After 11 days in ED custody, he will appear in court again on March 24. Santanu Banerjee was arrested by the ED on Friday after an eight-hour interrogation in Kolkata.

The case was filed on the orders of the Calcutta High Court against the then-Minister-in-Charge of the West Bengal Department of School Education and others on allegations of illegal appointment of Assistant Teachers for 11th and 12th grade classes.

It was also claimed that the former West Bengal Central School Service Commission Advisor was part of a network that illegally accommodated undeserving candidates for appointment in SSC scam cases.

Former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee are being investigated in connection with a recruitment scam at the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Last year, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) filed a prosecution complaint before the PMLA Special Court in Kolkata against eight accused in the West Bengal Teachers Recruitment Scam, including Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee.

In October 2022, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 12 people, including Subiresh Bhattacharya, the former chairman of the WBCSSC, in connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers through the WBSSC.

In the chargesheet filed before an Alipore special judge, the CBI also named a former assistant secretary of the WBCSSC, an ex-adviser, two former programme officers of the commission, and six others.

Santi Prasad Sinha, Ashok Kumar Saha, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Parna Bose, Samarjit Acharya, Prasanna Kumar Roy, Pradip Singh, Jnui Das, Md Azad Ali Mirza, Imam Momin, and Rohit Kumar Jha were named in the chargesheet.