The arrest of Manik Bhattacharya, TMC MLA from Palashipara, West Bengal, was expected but delayed.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which picked up Bhattacharya on Tuesday, had summoned him several times before in connection with the school jobs scam case. Over a dozen notices were sent to him to appear before the ED, but Manik, an academician, refused to do so. In a charge-sheet that was filed before the court last month, the ED mentioned Manik as one of the accused. The question now remains: Why was he not arrested if he was an accused along with Partha Chatterjee, former cabinet minister, who was arrested 80 days ago?
Said an ED officer, “We are probing the money trail. CBI is probing the criminality part of it. In our raids, there was no recovery from the house of Manik Bhattacharya. But several past interactions of Manik with Partha Chatterjee revealed Manik’s direct involvement.”
In the charge-sheet, Manik was mentioned as a very close friend of Partha. “He used to call the minister by his first name and would tell him to set aside some time for him as he would be coming to his house,” said one of the ED officials in charge of the investigation.
Partha was the education minister then and Manik was the head of the primary school council.
WhatsApp messages also revealed that many people lodged complaints with Partha that Manik used to take money from teachers for transfer and then from candidates for recruitment. Partha, however, ignored those complaints and did not take any action against Manik. It is not known where Manik deposited that money, said a source in the ED.
Being a professor of law, it is believed that Manik used to give legal advice to Partha on several occasions.
His arrest is being touted by the ED as a major achievement. The Calcutta High Court had ordered his removal from the post of primary school council head. However, no action was taken against him by the TMC.
