The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday submitted in court that “No Objection Certificates” were issued to self-financed degree and professional colleges in the state in lieu of money and that the agency was in the process of finding out who were directly or indirectly involved in the process.
Among the self-financed institutions are law schools and pharmacy colleges.
ED lawyers made the submission in the special (CBI) court-I on Wednesday during the production of former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and his alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee in connection with a case of alleged money laundering.
“During the investigation, it has been found that huge proceeds of crime were generated by issuing No-Objection Certificates to private professional colleges,” said ED’s lawyer Abhijit Bhadra.
Sources in the directorate said the central agency had interrogated the owners of some private colleges and intermediaries and had stumbled upon information that they allegedly paid Rs 10 lakh for each NOC, irrespective of whether the institute had the requisite infrastructure or not.
The agency further submitted: “Various new facts related to the irregularities made in giving NOC to private colleges and granting affiliation to private BEd colleges and DElEd institutions have come to light during the custody period of Manik Bhattacharya.”
Bhattacharya, who was president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education for more than 10 years at a stretch, was arrested by the ED on October 10 in connection with a case of alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment in government-aided schools. He was in the ED custody till October 25.
On the basis of these findings, the ED has recorded Chatterjee’s statement, the central agency’s lawyers told the court.
Chatterjee’s lawyer Sk. Salim Rahman said that as the chargesheet had already been submitted, it could be presumed that the agency had completed its investigation.
The court after hearing all parties said “the allegation made against the accused persons is that they are found involved for the commission of the offence of money laundering… for the object of illegally giving jobs for the post of assistant teachers and also as primary teachers and generated huge proceeds of crime....”
“Investigation is still going on in full swing and in the course of such investigation, new avenues are opening day by day…. Hence, it cannot be concluded that the ED is wasting time and buying more and more opportunities by detaining the accused persons by obtaining approval of this court,” the court said.
The judicial remand of both Chatterjee and Mukherjee was extended till December 14.