Tapas Mondal, an accused in the school job scam case and now in custody, alleged on Thursday that suspended Trinamul Congress youth leader Kuntal Ghosh had been collecting money from candidates citing the name of Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the party.
Ghosh, also in custody in the job scam case, denied the allegations.
Both spoke to reporters while being taken to the Special (CBI) Court -I by CBI officers on Thursday.
“Kuntal Ghosh had been collecting huge sums of money citing the name of Abhishek Banerjee and then sending it abroad through hawala. I think he has collected Rs 500 crore,” Mondal said.
Denying the allegations, Ghosh said the investigation by the CBI was “politically motivated”.
“If a ring determines who is influential, then imagine the quality of investigation by central agencies,” Ghosh said before entering the court. “I don’t have a ring. I have heat rashes on my fingers.” .
Former state education minister Partha Chatterjee, another accused in the job scam case, was accused of wearing two rings in judicial custody. A lawyer representing the ED told a judge during Chatterjee’s virtual production on Wednesday that the two rings on the former minister’s fingers showed how influential he was.
After hearing the submissions from both sides, the court extended the judicial remand of Ghosh and Mondal.
Examine two phones of MLA: Court
A special CBI court in Alipore on Thursday granted permission to the central agency to send two mobile phones of arrested Trinamul MLA Jiban Krishna Saha for forensic examination.
The phones were recovered from a pond adjoining Saha’s house in Murshidabad’s Burwan during a 36-hour search operation.
The central agency had arrested Saha on Monday morning following the search.
Lawyers representing CBI told the court that a forensic examination of the phones was necessary to retrieve electronic evidence in connection with the probe into the case.
Saha was arrested for his alleged involvement in irregularities in appointments in state-aided schools.