The Enforcement Directorate, investigating the massive education scam in Bengal, has found out that a large amount of money has been siphoned out of the country through Shell companies and Hawala transactions. They have found two Shell companies in this regard and are taking the help of CBI and NIA.
The agency officials say that the Rs 50 crore siphoned from the homes of former education minister Partha Chatterjee—is just the tip of the iceberg.
“A Big amount of money has been taken out of India. We are questioning the prime accused persons (Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee) about it. “Arpita has revealed something about the sources of the money. But she is not telling about the international destination of the proceeds,” said a senior ED official in Kolkata.
This is in sharp contrast to when the CBI had begun the investigation-- saying the total scam could be around Rs 120 cr. With Rs 50 cr cash recovery and more than Rs 100 cr worth of gems and jewellery recovery, what stunned the Enforcement Directorate is the recovery of gold biscuits.
When asked about Bangladesh being the easy destination for the transportation of money, the officer said, “Not only Bangladesh. It is some other country.”
The agency said it is in the process of filling the first charge sheet and CBI would continue with the crime angle as asked by the Calcutta High Court. The first charge sheet, to be filed within six weeks as being asked by the court, primarily would mention the names of the two arrested people along with the co-conspirator.
The total amount of scams—so far estimated by the ED—is far from Rs 120 cr. The amount is over Rs 15,000 cr which includes proceeds leaders received from the students who got jobs and for thousands of transfers. What is much more interesting is that the bribes taken from the transfer might be larger than the total bribe amount received from giving jobs unlawfully.
Calcutta High Court asked the ED to investigate the rise of wealth of 19 ministers of the Mamata’s government from 2011 to 2017 while delivering an order on public interest litigation. Two of them, Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande, who saw an exponential rise in their income in five years of being ministers—have died.
