Over 900 teachers for Classes IX and X and over 1,100 teachers for XI and XII allegedly got their jobs through manipulation of marks, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday in a chargesheet in a case relating to irregularities in appointments in state-aided schools.
The central agency identified Shanti Prasad Sinha, former chairman of the school service commission’s (SSC)’s advisory committee, as the key accused in the case and said he operated through a web of “middlemen” and “agents”.
Prasanna Roy, allegedly a close aide to now arrested former education minister Partha Chatterjee was one of the key middlemen, the ED said. He allegedly collected several crores of rupees from prospective candidates through a chain of agents.
Besides Sinha and Roy, the chargesheet mentions the names of at least 16 others who were allegedly involved in the irregularities in appointments in state-aided schools.
“Primarily, it appears Shanti Prasad had chalked out the blueprint of this scam and was aided by several middlemen and agents. The investigation is not yet over,” a senior ED official said. “Money would be collected from prospective candidates from almost all the districts of Bengal. The amount would be parked in over 90 shell companies before it became white money.”
Earlier this month, the ED arrested Sinha, earlier arrested by the CBI, while probing the money trail in the alleged irregularities in recruitment in state-aided schools. The CBI had arrested him in August 2022. The CBI, which has been probing the alleged irregularities, said in its report that the committee led by Sinha would allegedly recommend the names sent by Chandan Mondal, a para-teacher in Bagda in North 24-Parganas who was arrested in February 2023.
The ED’s chargesheet mentions names of close to 100 people allegedly involved in this case, while detailing how money collected from the prospective candidates would travel through a complex web of middlemen and agents to shell companies and finally reach the alleged beneficiaries.