Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducting a parallel probe in the West Bengal multi-crore cash-for-school jobs case, have so far attached assets and properties worth Rs 161 crore in the course of its probe and searches in connection with the case, the ED counsel told the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday.
Justice Amrita Sinha was told that of Rs 161 crore, Rs 148 crore had been confiscated by the ED and the remaining Rs 13 crore by the CBI.
Of the Rs 161 crore attached property, assets worth Rs 7 crore belonged to a corporate entity whose name has surfaced repeatedly in the entire school job case as well as in the coal smuggling case in West Bengal.
When Justice Sinha asked whether the source of funds for purchasing that attached fund had been identified or not, the counsel of CBI submitted a report to a bench in a sealed envelope.
Although the details of the contents of the report could not be known, the CBI counsel said that their officials had tracked the person who collected money in the school job matter, but the collection was on behalf of someone else.
On Wednesday, Justice Sinha expressed ire over the lackadaisical approach of a section of the central agency officials in carrying out the probe process.
She also asked the central agency counsel to ask their officers to be more careful in the process of investigation since this is a court-monitored probe.
Justice Sinha also expressed anguish over not much progress in the investigation in the matter which is in relation to the voice-sampling test of one of the prime accused in the case, Sujay Krishna Bhadra.
She also expressed ire over the delay on the part of the state government in submitting its own report in the school job case in West Bengal to her bench.
She said the next hearing in the matter will be on July 30 and by then the state government should submit its report in the case.
–IANS
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