Bengal School Job Case: CBI to Take Help of Forensic Audit Experts

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take the help of forensic audit experts to have a clearer idea of the routes of fund diversion in the multi-crore cash-for- school job case in West Bengal.

Forensic auditing is a specialised area within the accounting standards through which financial records of an individual or an entity is examined to extract evidence in a legal proceeding.

The move is perceived to be a desperate initiative on part of the central agency to expedite the probe process in the matter in wake of scathing criticism from different courts on the slow pace of investigation in the matter.

Sources said that the CBI proposes to conduct forensic audits for the books of accounts of several corporate entities that have been under the central agency scanner during the course of investigation.

These companies are mainly linked to former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, his close associate Arpita Mukherjee and Sujay Krishna Bhadra. Some of these corporate entities are also those where the companies linked to Chatterjee, Mukherjee and Bhadra had invested substantial amounts.

At the same time, sources added, CBI sleuths also want to go deeper into the huge amounts of unsecured loans granted by these corporate entities. It is learnt that the CBI sleuths investigating the matter have already approached the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Union ministry of finance for technical assistance on this count.

On Monday after, the sleuths of Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case in West Bengal, faced the ire of the Calcutta High Court’s single- judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha for submitting incomplete details on the assets and properties of Trinamool Congress’ national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

“There is no mention of his bank account details in your report. Is it possible that he has no bank account? It seems that you are also not aware of his exact residential address,” Justice Sinha said. She also expressed doubts over the property details of a Bengali actor that she had sought from the ED in connection with the case.