Kolkata: The Bankshall court on Tuesday gave 14-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody to TMC MLA and former West Bengal Board of Primary Education chairman Manik Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya will be next produced in a court on October 25.
The bail plea of Bhattacharya was not granted by the court.
After night-long questioning in connection with the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers, Bhattacharya was arrested by ED earlier this day.
Following his arrest, he was taken for a medical checkup before producing him to Bankshall court.
According to ED sources, the central agency had asked for Bhattacharya's custody.
“Bhattacharya was not cooperating with the probe and was also trying to mislead the investigators. There were several suspicious Whatsapp chats found on Bhattacharya’s mobile. We have submitted all the details to the court. Some bank accounts of family members of Bhattarcharya were also found (with outsiders),” said the ED sources.
It may be noted that while Bhattacharya was being produced to the court, BJP workers with shoes in their hands were seen chanting ‘chor, chor’ (thief, thief) to the TMC MLA.
BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said that so much of ‘wrong doing’ happened over recruitment.
Senior CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “The former education minister is in jail. Board members of SSC and primary education are also in jail. This is a sorry state of affairs for West Bengal.”
However, TMC refused to pay heed to this.
TMC state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the BJP and the CPI (M) don’t have any ‘right’ to comment on this.
“We have complete faith in the judiciary. I would request the central agency to make an impartial probe,” stated Ghosh.
The protesting students were also seen as happy after the central sleuths had arrested Bhattacharya.
It is pertinent to mention that earlier, the Supreme Court granted Bhattacharya “protection” from being arrested by the CBI, which is also investigating the case.
