The Bengal Opposition parties, including the Left and the Congress, have demanded immediate arrest of Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee after the Enforcement Directorate earlier told the Calcutta High Court that it had attacked eight properties worth about Rs 7.5 crore belonging to the Leaps and Bounds, a company owned by Banerjee and his other relatives including his parents.

"The ED must have attached the said properties because they have been illegally acquired with unexplained money … if it is so then they should proceed to arrest the owners of the company … and it is a public knowledge that Abhishek Banerjee is the Chief Executive Officer of the company," said CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty.

Already the ED had arrested former Chief Operating Officer of the company Sujay Krishna Bhadra popularly known as Kalighater Kaku (uncle of Kalighat) for his alleged links with the teachers' recruitment scam.

This, while Kaku had himself gone on record saying that Banerjee --- who besides being the second in command in the Trinamool Congress --- is also the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Pradesh Congress leadership too demanded junior Banerjee's arrest even as its senior leader Soumya Aich said, "if you do not get the ears you cannot catch the head," adding, "the more the ED makes delay in arresting Abhishek Banerjee the more it will give rise to suspicions in the people's mind that there must be something cooking between BJP which controls t he central agencies and the TMC … do we now suspect that the Banerjee's will be spared in lieu of some clandestine seat adjustment in Bengal … because in the given circumstances the BJP is not in a position to reach double digits I the MP elections if it is not helped by the TMC."

Banerjee's legal team however quickly responded, saying that the ED was trying to "draw bogus links between the alleged scam and properties legally owned by Leaps & Bounds." His lawyer said, "attachment of properties is one thing and to establish a link between the attached properties and the recruitment scam is another … the ED is doing this in order to give my client a bad name before the elections."

Reacting on the issue senior Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim said that he could not deny that some of those in power were involved in the recruitment scams. "I must concede that corruption had taken place in recruitment and some people in power were involved in it … but I must also remind that not all were involved in it," he said adding, "if anyone can prove that I am involved in recruitment scam then I will immediately resign."  

Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari too demanded Banerjee's arrest saying "the ED is doing its duty diligently and there is no way the topmost TMC leadership including Bhaipo (read Abhishek Banerjee) and his other relatives who may have been involved in the scam can escape the long arms of law. They will have to go to jail and they will definitely go to jail."

The ED and CBI had been conducting a court-monitored investigation into the cash-for-job scam which has affected the lives and careers of more than 25,000 aspirants from primary to the higher secondary levels. According to the ED officials the properties attached by the agency include two high-rises at Kalighat in South Kolkata and some landed properties in North 24 Parganas.

Meanwhile, in another startling revelation the CBI has told the High Court about how the Primary TET department had sold out 23 lakh OMR sheets to a Odisha paper mill functioning from Balasore district of that State. According to the CBI sources the total weight of the OMR sheets pertaining to 2014 TET examinations was about 26,000 kgs. At least three companies were involved in selling the OMR sheets, agency sources said.

The agency also told the court that soon after the OMR sheets were disposed off, a panel of 2,871 candidates, was created for appointment to the primary teachers' posts. Incidentally the exams to fill up 45,000 vacant posts were conducted by SB Ray and Company which had its offices around Bhawanipore and Kalighat region in South Kolkata. Senior officials in the Education Department said that OMR sheets were not for destruction and had to be preserved for future queries. "These are public records and have to be preserved for several years … but mysteriously enough they were sold away," a senior official in the Education Department said.

In a passing reference the High Court had earlier said that prima facie it seemed that the properties of some top functionaries of the TMC had started witnessing a massive jump from 2014 when the TET scam took place for the first time.