Bengal recruitment scam: ED tightens screws on TMC leader Shantanu Banerjee, raids his house
In the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, the Enforcement Directorate has started cracking down on the accused TMC leaders.
ED officials have started raids again from Saturday morning. ED officials have started the search of a house in Bandel of Hooghly district. According to ED sources, this house in Bandel belongs to expelled Hooghly Trinamool youth leader Shantanu Banerjee, who has been arrested in recruitment corruption case. ED officials had told in the court that Shantanu Banerjee had started life by selling mobile sims, but now he has become the owner of immense wealth.
Earlier, after the school recruitment scam came to light, the ED had raided several places in the state. Many accused have also been arrested. Recently expelled youth leaders of Hooghly Trinamool Shantanu and Kuntal Ghosh were arrested by ED. Both are accused of taking money in the name of recruitment.
ED freezes several bank accounts of Shantanu Banerjee
Both these leaders have already been accused of scams worth crores of rupees. The bank accounts of both the youth leaders have been ‘freezed’ by the officials of the Central Investigation Agency. Along with Shantanu, at least 20 bank accounts of his wife and their company were also ‘freezed’ on Friday. According to ED sources, the total amount in the monitored accounts is over Rs 1 crore. Where did that money come from, where did it go, when did it go, it is also being investigated. On the other hand, Tollywood actor Boney Sengupta and Kuntal’s close friend Soma Chakraborty have been accused of taking Rs 44 lakh and Rs 55 lakh respectively from Kuntal. However, according to ED sources, both have returned the money. The Tollywood connection also came to the fore after the interrogation of Shantanu Banerjee.
The rigging was done on the instructions of influential – Shantanu Banerjee had alleged
According to a senior ED official, Kuntal and Shantanu are being questioned almost every day. According to ED sources, during the cross-examination, Shantanu Banerjee claimed that he did “all the work” at the behest of some “influential” people. He also claimed that Kuntal Ghosh was the ‘mastermind’ of the recruitment case. The arrested youth leader claimed that he had also given Kuntal Ghosh the responsibility of carrying out the orders of the ‘influential’. According to ED sources, the investigators are trying to find out who are the ‘influential’ people mentioned by Shantanu Banerjee or they are also checking the veracity of Shantanu Banerjee’s claim. It is believed that the raid on Saturday morning was done on the basis of new information received from both the youth leaders.
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