Teachers' Recruitment Scam: ED Arrests Trinamool Confidant Sujay Krishna Bhadra

Kolkata, May 31 (IANS) After a marathon interrogation that lasted for over 12 hours, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the alleged multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal on Tuesday night arrested Sujay Krishna Bhadra, a close confidant of the top leadership of Trinamool Congress and a suspect in the case.

Sources said that Bhadra will be presented before a special PMLA court in Kolkata on Wednesday and the ED counsel will seek his custody for further interrogation.

Bhadra reached the ED office at around 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday and was arrested after a marathon 12-hour grilling at around 11 p.m.

Sources said that in the initial stage of the interrogation, Bhadra first tried to mislead the interrogating officers by making contradictory statements. However, at a later stage of the interrogation, when the central agency started contradicting his statements after presenting specific documents, he started misbehaving with the interrogating officers.

Sources said that Bhadra constantly avoided and dodged questions pertaining to his links with three corporate entities which the central agency suspects to be shell companies used in diversion of the proceeds of crime.

On May 20, the ED had conducted raids at Bhadra's residence in Behala. The raids were carried out on the same day when the CBI had questioned Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the case.

Earlier, the CBI had also raided Bhadra's residence during which they had seized some documents and cash. The ED has accessed certain clues from the two mobile phones of Bhadra that were seized.

Bhadra's name had surfaced after Gopal Dalpati, a suspect in the case, named him during the central agency's interrogation.

Dalpati had told that an accused in the recruitment case and expelled youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh used to hand over a portion of the scam proceeds collected by him to Bhadra, whom Ghosh used to address as 'Kalighater Kaku' (uncle of Kalighat).

As per Dalpati's versions, Ghosh claimed that Bhadra was his main link with the top leadership of the state's ruling party.