Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked fictitious transactions worth Rs 1.5 crore in two bank accounts of West Bengal Minister Chandranath Sinha while probing the recruitment of primary teachers in state-run schools.
The ED has filed a charge sheet against him, which details the irregularities in the recruitment process, involving the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles in the current cabinet of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Central agency has mentioned the details of such transactions in the charge sheet, which it filed against Sinha at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) earlier this week.
As per the charge sheet, such fictitious transactions, mainly inward remittances, took place between 2016 and 2021, which was the peak period for the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.
Sources aware of the development said that although Sinha was asked about such transactions in the past, he could not give any satisfactory answer on this count.
Sinha is the second Minister in the Bengal government against whom the ED has filed a charge sheet in this case, the first being the former West Bengal Education Minister and ex-Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee.
Sinha has twice avoided appearing before the ED officers.
On Thursday, Sinha suddenly appeared at the ED office. However, it was not clear whether he had been questioned or not.
Responding to the development that the ED has filed a charge sheet against him in the primary recruitment case, the Minister said he had heard about it.
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.
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.
He is known to be close to Anubrata Mondal, the Trinamool Congress strongman and the party’s former district president in Birbhum. Sinha was first summoned by the ED for questioning in connection with the multi-crore cattle-smuggling case in March last year, but was not named in the related charge sheet.
(IANS)
