West Bengal: ED seizes property worth Rs 27.19 crore in school job case

Kolkata, June 24 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) Kolkata Zonal Office has attached property worth Rs 27.19 crore in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal, an official said on Tuesday.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the central agency clarified that the attachment is just in connection with the irregularities in recruitment in non-teaching jobs in Group-C and Group-D categories.

“Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Kolkata Zonal Office has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties amounting to Rs 27.19 crore in the West Bengal Central SSC (Group C and D staff) Recruitment Scam of West Bengal held in the name of three tea estates of Prasanna Kumar Roy namely M/s Samsing Organic Tea Private Limited, M/s Yangtong Organic Tea Private Limited and M/s Bamandanga Tea Estate Private Limited. The attached properties consist of Bungalows, Factory, Plants and Machineries and Vehicles. These properties were acquired from the cash collected from various undeserving candidates for their illegal appointments to the post of Group-C and D staff,” the ED said in the statement.

According to ED, during the investigation in two FIRs registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under various sections of IPC, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, it was revealed that several undeserving, non-listed and below-ranked candidates were recruited as non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D categories, depriving the deserving and genuine candidates.

The charges in the matter include appointment without maintaining fairness, criminal conspiracy by various persons, and flouting the relevant rules.

“ED earlier attached properties worth Rs 219.91 in this case of Group C and D staff Recruitment Scam in the State of West Bengal and arrested Prasanna Kumar Roy (the main middleman involved in the collection of money and details from candidates) and Chandan Mondal (main agent of Prasanna Kumar Roy) and both are presently in judicial custody,” the ED stated on Tuesday.

It also said that in a related case, in the secondary and higher secondary teachers’ recruitment scam in state-run schools, ED officials earlier attached properties worth Rs 238.78 crore.

“In another case of primary teachers' recruitment scam in the state of West Bengal, ED has already attached/seized properties worth Rs 151 crore. Thus, the total attachment by ED, Kolkata in the recruitment scam cases now stands at Rs 636.88 crore,” the statement read.

--IANS

src/uk