ED Raids Few Properties Linked To Abhishek Banerjee In Cash-For-Jobs Scam

Even as the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by the Bengal government challenging the Calcutta High Court’s clearance to the CBI and ED — to probe the recruitment scam in Bengal’s civic bodies — the ED raided a few properties linked to Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. 

The ED raided the offices of a firm, Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd, in which Abhishek’s parents — Lata and Amit Banerjee — are the only directors Monday (21 August). The company is said to have been set up by Abhishek. 

Amit Banerjee is the brother of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. There have been many allegations of corruption and amassing of properties (disproportionate to known sources of income) levelled against the chief minister’s siblings. 

ED sleuths carried out a search in the office of Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd at the upscale New Alipore area of southwest Kolkata. The sleuths seized documents and devices that stored electronic data in the raid that lasted over seven and half hours. 

The ED sleuths also questioned two senior employees of the firm about some suspicious financial transactions. The ED suspects that the proceeds from the jobs-for-cash scams in government-run schools and civic bodies in the state were routed to this company which then laundered the money. 

Another ED team carries out searches at the offices of a construction firm that is undertaking a massive housing project at Bishnupur in South 24 Parganas. Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd is said to have a substantial stake in the project. 

A third team of ED sleuths went to a packaged drinking water plant in South 24 Parganas owned by Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd and seized some documents. The ED suspects that proceeds from the cash-for-jobs scams were invested in the plant. 

The ED’s raids come after sustained interrogation of Sujay Krishna Bhadra, also known as Kalighat er kaku because of his close proximity to the Banerjee clan, including Mamata Banerjee. The Banerjee clan stays in the Kalighat area and kaku in Bengali means uncle. 

Bhadra was known by that moniker (Kailghat er kaku) by everyone in the Trinamool Congress. Even senior Trinamool leaders used to defer to him because of his intimate links with the Banerjee clan.

Bhadra was associated with Leaps & Bounds and was a director of the company for many years. He was arrested by the ED in end-May this year. He is suspected to be the main conduit for the proceeds from the cash-for-jobs scams.

Bhadra had been summoned by the CBI and ED multiple times before his arrest. When he was first summoned by the CBI, Mamata Banerjee had reacted angrily and defended him. 

Bhadra’s name had come up during the interrogation of Trinamool Youth Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh who is also very close to Abhishek Banerjee. Ghosh is said to have named Bhadra as the link between former education minister Partha Chatterjee and the school education department. 

CBI and ED raids and investigations revealed that Bhadra had amassed properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees. He could not show how he had come into possession of so much wealth. 

According to ED sources, Bhadra had been uncooperative during his interrogation. But he had started making some important revelations during sustained interrogation and during cross-examination in front of other accused in the scams. 

The ED also searched a plush apartment worth over Rs 2.5 crore on Lee Road (a posh South Kolkata locality) Monday afternoon. The apartment was gifted by Bhadra to his son-in-law Debdut Chatterjee. 

Chatterjee was also quizzed by ED sleuths. Bhadra had floated a firm — SD Consultancy — along with his son-in-law. SD Consultancy secured an order from a realtor and was paid Rs one crore by the latter.

A large portion of that money was paid by SD Consultancy to Leaps & Bounds Pvt Ltd as ‘consultancy fee’. 

A senior CBI officer connected with the investigations into the cash-for-jobs scams told Swarajya: “There is a web of transactions that are being unravelled by the ED now. Bribed collected from the thousands of people who were appointed as teachers were channelled into different companies through some conduits who have very close links with very powerful ruling politicians”. 

The CBI, during the course of its investigations into the scam in the school education department, found that the persons involved in rigging the school recruitment process had done the same in recruitments in various municipal bodies in the state. 

The CBI probe into the school jobs scam is being monitored by a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. 

After the CBI informed the Court that it had stumbled on another cash-for-jobs scam in the Trinamool-run civic bodies in the state, Justice Gangopadhyay asked the CBI and ED to carry out parallel probes into the new scam on 21 April this year.

The Bengal government challenged this order before the Supreme Court which, on 28 April, asked the CBI and ED to maintain status quo and directed the Bengal government to seek review of the single-judge bench’s order  by another bench of the Calcutta High Court. 

But on 13 May, another bench headed by Justice Amrita Sinha upheld the earlier order asking the ED and CBI to probe the new recruitment scam in Trinamool-run municipalities in the state. 

The state government challenged this order before a larger bench comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee. But this larger bench, on 15 June, reaffirmed the earlier orders. 

Eventually, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Paridwala and Justice Manoj Misra Monday (21 August) dismissed the state’s challenge and cleared the decks for the CBI and the ED to probe the recruitment scam in municipalities. 

The Trinamool Congress leadership fears that the probe into the new scam can net more leaders of the party, thus causing severe embarrassment to the top leadership.