Teachers' recruitment scam: Manik Bhattacharya's judicial custody extended till Nov 24

Kolkata, Nov 10 A special Enforcement Directorate court here on Thursday sent Trinamool Congress legislator and West Bengal Board of Primary Education's (WBBPE) former President Manik Bhattacharya, arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in the primary teachers' recruitment scam, to another 14 days judicial custody.

Bhattacharya's counsel moved a petition at the court seeking bail for his client on health grounds and under any condition. However, ED counsel Phiroze Edulji opposed the bail plea.

Claiming 325 candidates were hired as primary teachers despite not qualified in the recruitment examination in 2014, Edulji argued that the central agency needs to go deeper in probing the involvement of Bhattacharya in this particular scam and for this, the ED sleuths need to question him further as well as those who recruited illegally.

The ED counsel also presented at the court certain documents on a massive amount of Rs 20.73 crore were transferred to accounts of Bhattacharya, his son and some of his relatives from different private teachers' training institutes.

On this point he also referred to statement given by Tapas Mondal, President of All Bengal Teachers' Training Achievers' Association (ABTTAA), an umbrella organisation of private teacher training colleges in the state, to the ED where he said that offline registration fees were sent to office of the board following the instructions of Bhattacharya.

After hearing both sides, the court sent Bhattacharya to judicial custody till November 24.

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