A court on Wednesday rejected the bail petition of the wife and son of Manik Bhattacharya, former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and sitting Trinamul Congress MLA, and sent them to judicial remand for their alleged involvement in money laundering.
Manik is in custody in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitments for government-aided primary schools.
His wife Satarupa and son Souvik have been accused by the Enforcement Directorate of assisting him in money laundering and parking proceeds of the crime “across the world”.
“These three accused persons (Manik Bhattacharya and his wife and son) formed the vicious triangle of accumulating proceeds of crime and layering them through several persons, including close relatives,” ED lawyer Abhijit Bhadra submitted in the court.
The ED had submitted a chargesheet against Manik and his family last December and accused them of being part of the alleged money laundering racket.
Unlike Manik, his wife and son were not arrested.
The ED submitted a supplementary charge-sheet, following which Satarupa and Souvik surrendered in court in January and filed a bail petition.
The court on Wednesday heard the bail prayer and rejected it and remanded the mother and son in judicial custody till March 6.
“Satarupa Bhattacharya has a bank account that she opened jointly with Mrityunjay Chatterjee,” an ED officer said.
“Chatterjee died in 2016. After his death, Satarupa updated the KYC for the bank account by showing the deceased as out of station. She deposited huge sums into that bank account after Chatterjee’s death.... She is a housewife and totally dependent on her husband. Which means the amount infused into the bank account is proceeds of crime generated by Manik Bhattacharya.”
Cops rescue senior citizen
A man in his 70s who had apparently forgotten his address and was loitering on Rashbehari Avenue in south Kolkata was rescued by traffic police on Tuesday.
Sk Nazmul Hossain, additional officer-in-charge of Tollygunge traffic guard, and sergeant Pallab Bose searched the man’s bag and wallet and found a voter ID card that revealed he was a resident of Regent Park, police said.
The cops contacted Regent Park police station and located his address. They identified the man as Chira Ranjan Ghosh. He was reunited with his family later in the day, the police said.