Bengal school job case: Trinamool leader granted bail by HC

Kolkata, Nov 26 A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Tuesday, granted conditional bail to former Trinamool Congress leader Santanu Bandopadhyay, who allegedly acted as one of the principal middlemen in the multi-crore cash-for- school job case in West Bengal.

The bail for Bandopadhyay was granted by the single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh just a day after Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of the former West Bengal education minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee, was granted bail by a special court of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata on Monday evening.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials arrested Bandopadhyay in March 2023 following a statement given against him by another accused in the school-job case Tapas Mondal. At that point in time Bandopadhyay was quite an influential Trinamool Congress leader in Kolkata-adjacent Hooghly district.

At the time of Bandopadhayay’s arrest, the investigating officials secured crucial documents from his residence, including a list of 346 candidates from 17 districts who allegedly got school jobs after paying hefty amounts.

Bandopadhyay was also named in the charge sheet by ED where it was mentioned that he received an amount of Rs 1.39 crore as commission for arranging the job illegally. He was also accused of diverting the funds in multiple accounts which was a typical case of money laundering.

Meanwhile, on Nonday night the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school- job case, made a fresh arrest in this connection. As per the information available, Santu Gangopadhyay, a middleman and an extremely close confidant of Partha Chatterjee, was arrested.

It is learnt that although his name was in the charge sheet filed by the ED, he was not arrested. However, he was questioned several times by the investigating officials of the two central agencies and raid and search operations were also conducted at his residence.