The total confiscation amount by the Enforcement Directorate has reached Rs 239.26 crore so far in the cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal even though uncertainties continue to prevail over the completion of the process of framing charges in the ED-registered case in the matter.
The confiscation is in terms of cash and gold seized in the case as well as the attachment of properties and assets both in West Bengal and outside the state.
The latest major attachment, according to a statement issued by ED, is commercial properties at Noida in Uttar Pradesh and land parcels and buildings at Malda district in West Bengal worth Rs 8.20 crore.
These properties, according to the ED statement, were held in the name of M/s ND Infosystems Pvt. Ltd, a company owned and controlled by Niladri Das and his family members and Abdul Khalek and his family members.
The latest confiscations, according to ED, also include land parcels worth Rs 46.13 lakh registered in the names of Chandan Mondal and his wife.
On Thursday, the process for charges framing in the ED registered case was postponed for the second time during the current week at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata as the prime accused in the case, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, could not be presented the court because of his hospitalisation.
As per rules, the charge framing process cannot be concluded unless all those named as accused in the case are physically present at the court on the day.
The ED had named a total of 29 individuals and 24 corporate entities and trusts as accused in their charge sheets filed at the special court over a period of time.
Besides Bhadra, the other heavyweight names mentioned in the charge sheet include former Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee and ruling party legislator and West Bengal Board of Primary Education’s former President Manik Bhattacharya.
Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose twin residences the ED officials recovered a huge amount of cash and gold in July 2022, has also been named in the charge sheet. Another person named in the charge sheet as accused is Chatterjee’s son-in-law Kalyan Moy Bhattacharya. A trust christened Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the deceased wife of Chatterjee, is also named in the charge sheet as accused.
