A special ED court has granted permission to Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya, the son-in-law of former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, to become an approver in the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam case.
According to sources, Bhattacharya had put in a petition with the special court on March 10 seeking to become an approver and the court allowed it the following day. It is yet to be decided when Bhattacharya will give his statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which pertains to making confessions voluntarily and accurately to a judicial magistrate.
Bhattacharya was also named as an accused and beneficiary in the case in a supplementary chargesheet. As per sources with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), he is willing to reveal details of the money trail to the special court. ED officials have already interrogated him multiple times regarding the alleged financial irregularities in connection with the case.
The order stated, “By filing this petition the accused/petitioner prayed for allowing him to turn into an approver and permit him to make further statement to be recorded u/s 164 CrPC disclosing full and true facts, transactions and also disclosing the nature and extent of involvement of all the persons involved… He is also informed that being an approver, he may not be exonerated on being offered pardon by this Court.”
ED sources said Bhattacharya’s decision to turn approver could be a crucial turning point in the case and his statements could also help establish the involvement of others.
Partha Chatterjee and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee were arrested in 2022 on charges of involvement in corruption in the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam. On the day of his arrest, the agency recovered around Rs 40 crore in cash from Arpita’s residence. The investigation revealed large-scale corruption in the recruitment of teachers during Chatterjee’s tenure as education minister. The Trinamool Congress has since suspended Chatterjee.
During the course of investigation, the private school opened by Chatterjee in Pingla came under the scanner, so did his daughter and son-in-law under whose names several companies were found to be established.
The agency claimed that Bhattacharya used to control charitable organisations and trusts from the United States and he is also said to have known how money was laundered through the firms. Earlier, the court rejected his plea to return abroad.