Kolkata, March 16 The approval from a special court in Kolkata allowing Partha Chatterjee’s son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya to turn “approver” in the cash-for-school job case in West Bengal has come with a significant condition.
Bhattacharya, who was mentioned as an accused in the subsequent charge sheets filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the school job case, made the application to turn “approver” and also pleaded for exemption from charges against him in the case.
The special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata, while clearing his application to turn “approver”, had observed that Bhattacharya’s other plea for exemption from charges would be granted only if he revealed new information in the “confidential statement” to be recorded in front a judicial magistrate.
In case Bhattacharya fails to reveal new information that will aid the investigation process, his plea for exemption from charges will not be granted and he will continue to be considered an accused in the case.
The recording of the "secret confession" by Bhattacharya is expected to be conducted this week only.
Bhattacharya was a member of the trustee board in Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the deceased wife of Partha Chatterjee, the former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general.
The main charge against the trust is that proceeds in the school-job cases received in cash were shown as donations to the trust, and subsequently, the same proceeds were used to purchase property in the name of the trust.
Chatterjee, along with his close aide Arpita Mukherjee, were arrested in July 2022 by the ED officials after the latter recovered huge cash and gold from the twin residences of Mukherjee.
Though granted bail in the ED-registered case in the matter, Partha Chatterjee continues to be behind bars following the case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case.
The ED has named 53 individuals (as accused) in their subsequent charge sheets in the matter, out of which 29 are individuals, and the remaining 24 are corporate entities or trusts.
Besides Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, some other corporate entities have also been named in the charge sheets. A corporate entity where another prime accused, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, was the erstwhile chief operating officer (COO) is also named as an accused in the ED charge sheet.
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