Teachers' scam: Arrested promoter sent Rs 26 cr to 'influential' person, ED tells court

Kolkata, April 1 An Enforcement Directorate (ED) counsel told a special court here on Saturday that real estate promoter Ayan Sil, who was arrested in connection with the multi-crore scam in recruiting teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal, had transferred hefty scam proceeds to the tune of Rs 26 crore to a highly influential person through an agent.

ED's counsel Phiroze Edulji told the court that Sil has confessed to transfering the scam proceeds during interrogation by the central agency.

He also said that the investigating officers suspect that this fund transfer was meant for a high-ranking government official associated with the education sector.

"The investigation so far has revealed that Sil collected about Rs 45 crore from around 1,000 candidates appearing for the recruitment examinations for teaching and non-teaching posts, a major portion of which was transferred to as many as 30 bank accounts in his name.

"The investigating officers have so far got information about 40 of his bank accounts, eight residential apartments, five premium vehicles, one petrol pump and one hotel. All these were fruits of the scam proceeds," Edulji submitted in the court.

Edulji also claimed that Sil was directly responsible for the tampering of the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets, through which candidates genuinely scoring higher marks were disqualified where "right option marks" in the OMR sheets by them were changed to "wrong option marks".

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