In what resembled a Bollywood movie-type scene the officers of Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Jiban Krishna Saha, a Trinamool Congress MLA from the backyard of his house even as he jumped from the first floor of his house after seeing the officials approaching and tried to run away by scaling the boundary wall of his compound.
After a short chase the ED officials managed to capture Saha from inside a bush behind his house. But by that time he had managed to dispose of his mobile phone in a nearby drain, which was later recovered by the officials.
Saha’s arrest comes days after a court directed Bengal minister Chandranath Sinha to surrender before the investigating agencies to be quizzed in the teachers’ recruitment case.
Saha was arrested for his alleged involvement in the teachers’ recruitment scam that has already landed former Bengal Education Minister and TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee and many senior Government functionaries including a serving Vice Chancellor in jail.
Saha is an MLA from Baroan Assembly constituency of Murshidabad district. Earlier he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation when too he had thrown his two mobile phones into a pond to the rear of his house.
The CBI officials then had fished the two handsets out after three days by pumping out the water of the pond. Saha was presently on bail.
Upon a tip off that the MLA was engaged in money laundering the ED moved swiftly --- this time conducting search raids not only in his residence but also those of his relatives in Murshidabad and adjoining district.
About 25,000 para teachers --- almost evenly distributed in tainted and non-tainted groups --- were dismissed from their jobs after the Supreme Court early this year cancelled the entire panel on account of large-scale corruption that had taken place in the recruitment examinations. Thousands of “untainted teachers” were presently engaged in a prolonged movement against the Mamata Banerjee Government demanding their jobs back and holding it responsible for their loss of jobs.
The Monday’s development comes days after a special court under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) ordered State Jail Minister Chandranath Sinha who is an accused in the primary teacher recruitment scam, to surrender by September 12. Sinha an MLA from the Bolpur constituency is also in charge of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles department.
Earlier Governor C.V. Ananda Bose had given an approval to the ED to submit chargesheet against Sinha who has applied for an anticipatory bail.
After Chatterjee, Sinha is the second minister from Mamata Banerjee Cabinet to be chargesheeted in the teacher recruitment scam. Earlier Bengal Ministers Madan Mitra and Jyotipriya Mullick were arrested in Sharada and Ration scams respectively. While senior leaders and MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay and Kunal Ghosh too were arrested in the Sharada scam TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya was arrested in the primary teachers’ recruitment case. Except Chatterjee all others have obtained bail after spending months in jail.
Former primary education board president and Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya, youth leader Kunal Ghosh are among the people who have been arrested so far in connection with the scam.