Job scam: ED gets proof of Ayan Sil's involvement in 6,000 hirings

Kolkata: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has found evidence confirming the involvement of arrested private real estate promoter Ayan Sil in the 6,000 recruitments made in municipalities and state-run schools of West Bengal.

According to sources, a hard-disc seized from Sil's residence in a raid, contains names of the 6,000 individuals. Of them, around 5,000 were recruited in several municipalities, while the remaining were inducted as teaching and non-teaching staff in schools.

"Our officials raided the residence of Sil in search of evidence related to recruitment scam in state-run schools. Besides getting concrete clues on that count, our officials have recovered similar clues in relation to another recruitment scam, which is related to the municipalities in the state," an ED associate said.

He also said that this was just what the central agency sleuths came across after decoding just one hard-disk. A couple of other hard-discs have also been recovered and after decoding them more evidence about Shil's involvement in the scam will surface for sure, the central agency associate added.

Already from the hard-disc, the ED sleuths procured crucial clues about the collection of Rs 12 crore in the alleged scam for recruitment of staff in different municipalities.

As per sources, the hard disc not only mentions about the total proceeds collected in case of the municipalities recruitment irregularities, but also names of the candidates from whom money was collected and the amount collected.

The central agency will be filing a separate case in the scam of recruitment irregularities in the municipalities.

The ED counsel has already claimed at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) such irregularities had been evident in several municipalities in the state and in that process around 5,000 people in workers' and clerks' grades were recruited against payments of crore of rupees.