Bengal Minister at ED office in school job case

Kolkata:  Senior Trinamool Congress leader Chandranath Sinha, who recently took over as the West Bengal Minister of State for Correctional Services Department (independent charge), arrived at the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s Salt Lake office in the northern outskirts of Kolkata on Wednesday.

Sources aware of the development said that Minister Sinha, also the state micro, small & medium enterprises and textiles department minister, was at the ED’s office following the latter’s summons for questioning in relation to the agency's ongoing probe into the irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers in state-run schools.

The development has created ripples in the political circles of the state which is already boiling over the recent rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital within the hospital premises last month.

Sources said that the ED officials first secured the name of the minister from the diary of middleman and now-suspended youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh, who was later arrested by the central agency officials.

In fact, in March this year, the ED officials conducted raid and search operations at the Minister’s residence at Bolpur in Birbhum district.

After the raid and search operations, the ED officials seized cash of Rs 41 lakh and a mobile phone from his residence.

Minister Sinha is known to be extremely close to Trinamool Congress strongman and the former district president of the party in Birbhum, Anubrata Mondal.

Mandal is currently serving his judicial custody in Tihar jail in New Delhi in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.

Sources said that the fresh summons to Sinha is because of the surfacing of some fresh evidence against him in the matter which has necessitated his fresh interrogation.

At the time the report was filed there was no reaction from Trinamool Congress in the matter.