The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested businessman Ayan Sil, who was reportedly an associate of arrested Trinamul Congress leader Shantanu Banerjee, for his alleged involvement in corruption in recruitments in state-aided schools.
Sil was taken into custody from his house in Salt Lake early on Monday.
A real estate developer who also owns an IT company, Sil was involved in receiving and disbursing several crores of rupees that Banerjee, who has since been suspended by Trinamul, collected from candidates after promising them government jobs, an ED official said.
“One of Sil’s companies was entrusted with printing a code that appeared on OMR sheets that were distributed to candidates in tests for state government jobs. He used the opportunity to carry out irregularities in appointments and received close to Rs 50 crore,” the official said.
Many OMR sheets, admit cards and lists of candidates who had written tests in 2014 for recruitment in government-aided schools were seized from Sil’s home in Salt Lake.
The search lasted over 36 hours and culminated in Sil’s arrest, officials of the central agency said.
Sil was also allegedly involved in irregularities in recruitment in several municipal bodies, ED officials said.
"Records from Banerjee’s mobile phone show he was in regular touch with Sil. Sil developed several properties with which Banerjee was linked,” the ED official said.
"There are reasons to believe that part of the proceeds of crime was parked with Ayan. We need to find out more after questioning him in our custody."
Sil’s lawyers said the ED, which is probing the money trail related to the alleged irregular appointments, did not seize any cash from their client’s house. Sil was involved in the real estate business and was in no way connected appointments in schools, they said.
ED officials said Sil had also ventured into film production with the help of Banerjee,who was arrested by the ED on March 10. “The money that was collected from candidates who had written job tests was parked in the film business,” said an official.
Sil’s name surfaced during a search carried out by the ED in several properties reportedly owned by Banerjee in Hooghly on Saturday, officials said. Armed with the information, a team reached Sil's Salt Lake house where a search began on Saturday night and continued till early on Monday.
"Why would OMR sheets find their way to the house of the owner of a company that prints codes for the sheets? Not just schools, Sil had a role in recruitments in at least 60 municipal bodies,” the ED official said.