In a fresh twist to the cash-for-jobs scam in Bengal, the Calcutta High Court observed on Thursday that there is an “urgent need” to question Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee in connection with letters written to the court by scam accused Kuntal Ghosh.
In dual letters, one each against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Ghosh had reportedly alleged that the central investigators were pressuring him to name Abhishek as a beneficiary in the recruitment scam in Bengal.
During the course of the hearing, the Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay observed that the agencies have “so far only been able to reach till the hip of the scamsters while the heart and head are yet to be identified”.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay File picture
The CBI, as directed by the Calcutta High Court, is probing the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC). The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam.
While directing the twin central agencies, which are probing the alleged SSC recruitment irregularities, to conduct an investigation into the possible link between Banerjee’s public speech from Shahid Minar ground in Calcutta on March 29 and Kuntal’s letters that subsequently followed and submit a preliminary report by April 20, Justice Gangopadhyay virtually gave a green signal to the ED and CBI to rope in Banerjee into their investigation alongside interrogating Ghosh.
Banerjee had alleged in his speech that Trinamul leaders like Kunal Ghosh and Madan Mitra, who were earlier jailed for their alleged involvement in the Ponzi scam cases, were offered to be released if they named Abhishek as beneficiary. Ghosh’s letters were written from the Presidency Correctional Home, where he is currently lodged, reportedly a day after Banerjee delivered his speech and were subsequently forwarded to the local Hastings police station and to Justice Gangopadhyay to whom they were addressed.
During his production before a trial court on 6 April, Ghosh claimed before journalists that he had written those letters to the High Court judge.
On Thursday, the court further directed the state police to ensure that no FIR is filed against agency officers probing the job scam without its leave. The superintendent of the Presidency jail was also directed to preserve CCTV footage of visitors which the scam accused may have had between March 21 and April 6 and submit the prison’s visitors’ register in original to court at 12 noon on April 20 when the matter would be heard next. Failure to do so would attract appropriate penal action on the superintendent, the court warned.
Arguing that Banerjee’s allegation and Ghosh’s letters may have a connection, advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said that the letters had the dates all mixed up and seemed to have been dictated by someone outside the jail. “This looks like it was drafted from outside. The accused should undergo a Narco test,” he submitted.
“We need to find out if Kuntal Ghosh got the clues for writing this letter from Abhishek Banerjee’s speech because the two are greatly similar in tone and tenor,” the judge observed and gave directions concerning identification of visitors to the jail to ascertain whether Ghosh was prompted into writing the letters by outsiders.
Slamming the agencies for their slow pace of probe, the judge said: “Time is running out and the head of this recruitment scam still remains outside the police net. You must hurry up, else the court knows what needs to be done. The ones in custody are mere middlemen who took commission money. Where did the real money go? That needs to be found. What is the ED-CBI doing?”
Justifying his order for no FIR against job-scam probing agency officers and the embargo on coercive action against them by police and lower courts based on Ghosh’s allegation, Gangopadhyay observed: “Police has already registered multiple FIRs against investigating officers of central agencies and conducting probes. Complaints were even lodged against officers who were not part of the Lalan Seikh case (prime accused in the Bogtui carnage case who died in CBI custody). This seems to have now become a norm.”
The state submitted that no FIR has so far been lodged on the basis of Ghosh’s complaint. “It is unfair to hand over probe responsibility to those against whom allegations have been levelled,” the counsel for the state argued.
The Trinamul Congress reacted sharply. “The sanctity of the judicial system is being undermined by the manner in which in certain cases the chair of a judge is being misused to do politics, wish lists are being spelt out to supply oxygen to opponents and attempts are being made to turn oneself into a hero by means of self glorification. Leave that chair and come to politics directly,” a tweet, purportedly directed against Justice Gangopadhyay but without naming him, from party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh’s official handle was posted minutes after the order was passed.
