Kolkata: A lower court in Kolkata on Tuesday remanded Trinamool Congress legislator and former president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) Manik Bhattacharya to three days of judicial custody in connection to his alleged involvement in the primary teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal.
He was presented at the lower court following the completion of his 14 days of custody with Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday, as the special court of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in the city was closed because of the festival season.
So instead of accepting ED’s plea for 14 days of judicial custody, the lower court remanded Bhattacharya to just three days of judicial custody and he will be presented at the special court of PMLA in the city again on October 28.
On Tuesday, ED’s counsel Feroze Edulji brought some serious charges against Bhattacharya during the course of his argument.
He said that following preliminary investigation the central agency has traced property worth Rs 10 crore owned by Bhattacharya and his family members.
Edulji informed that ED sleuths have traced Rs 3 crore from a bank account held jointly by Manik Bhattacharya’s wife, Satarupa Bhattacharya and a deceased person named Mrityunjoy Chakraborty.
The ED counsel questioned that although Chakraborty died six years ago, his name has been continued as a joint holder of a bank account which raises doubts that a portion of the scam proceeds were diverted to that account.
The ED’s counsel also informed the court that a compact disc was recovered from the residence of Manik Bhattacharya by the ED sleuths, where there were some folders containing the names of 4,000 individuals.
On cross-checking with WBBPE authorities the central agency sleuths confirmed that 2,500 out of that 4,000 have secured jobs as primary teachers.
Bhattacharya’s counsels moved the bail applications on grounds of his age and health conditions.
His counsel also objected to the ED’s move to take their client far away to the ESI Hospital in Joka in the southern outskirts of Kolkata for regular medical checkup instead of nearby state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital.
This, according to his counsel, was an extra harassment for him.
However, the ED’s counsel opposed that argument claiming that when the court had already expressed doubts of the medical reports of SSKM in such cases, there was no point in taking him there for medical checkup. Finally, after hearing both sides, the court remanded Bhattacharya to three days of judicial custody.
–IANS