The ED, which is probing the money laundering angle in the recruitment scam, arrested Bhattacharya on October 11 for his alleged involvement in the scam related to recruitment of teachers in state-run primary schools. (Express File Photo)THE ENFORCEMENT Directorate (ED) has summoned Tapas Mondal, a close aide of Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya, in connection with its investigation into the SSC recruitment scam. He has been asked to appear before officials on October 20. Tapas’s son Bijesh Mondal said that his father is in Haridwar at present, adding that he would abide by the summons.
On Saturday, ED officers searched the Mondal residence in Barasat in North 24 Parganas yesterday for nearly 11 hours.
The ED, which is probing the money laundering angle in the recruitment scam, arrested Bhattacharya on October 11 for his alleged involvement in the scam related to recruitment of teachers in state-run primary schools. The houses that were searched include one of the premises of Minerva Educational and Welfare Society located at Mahishbathan in Salt Lake. It was a teachers’ training institute which Manik Bhattacharya, the arrested Trinamool Congress MLA, reportedly used to frequent. This institute belongs to Tapas Mondal, sources said. Several such teachers’ training institutes are also under the agency’s radar. Another flat in the Amherst Street area was also searched. It is alleged that many had seen trunks being brought to this flat before Durga Puja, sources said.
Manik Bhattacharya is the second Trinamool MLA who has been arrested, after Partha Chatterjee, in connection with the teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal. It is alleged that many undeserving candidates were hired as teachers in exchange for lakhs of rupees in the place of those who were eligible, had passed examinations and cleared interviews too.