Court orders ED summons on Minister Chandranath Sinha after Governor approves chargesheet
The Statesman | 21 August 2025
West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose officially approved the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Chandranath Sinha, minister in charge of correctional homes in the state, in connection with his alleged involvement in the primary teachers recruitment scam.
The ED, which is probing alleged irregularities in appointments in state-aided schools and had submitted the chargesheet against Mr Sinha earlier, informed the court on Wednesday that the Governor had sanctioned it. The minister is the Trinamul Congress MLA from Bolpur in Birbhum district.
With this clearance from the Governor, the court has directed the central agency to issue a summons to the minister within 15 days. When the ED had submitted the chargesheet to the special CBI Court earlier this month, it had not been accepted. The trial process against Mr Sinha can be initiated from now on after Mr Bose’s approval.
The ED had however received a formal nod from the Governor earlier that enabled it to prosecute the Cabinet minister. “Since the Governor is the appointing authority, it is mandatory to get an official clearance,” ED sources said.
Mr Sinha is the second minister from the party to be arraigned in the case that deals with alleged cash-for-job irregularities in recruitments to state-aided schools across West Bengal. Partha Chatterjee, former education minister, was the first Trinamool MLA to be chargesheeted in the case.
The chargesheet against Mr Sinha accuses him of alleged involvement in receiving money from several aspirants in exchange for teaching posts. “The Directorate of Enforcement, Kolkata Zonal Office, has filed its 6th Supplementary Prosecution Complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on 06.08.2025 against Chandranath Sinha (MLA and Minister-in-Charge for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Textiles and Correctional Administration, West Bengal) before the Hon’ble Special Court (PMLA), Kolkata in the matter of Primary Teachers’ Recruitment Scam,” ED had said in a release earlier this month.
The central agency had initiated an investigation under the PMLA based on an FIR registered by the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch on the directions of Calcutta High Court.
The ED then carried out search and seizure operations at Mr Sinha’s residence in Bolpur in March. The sleuths said some of the other accused and arrested in the case, including Kuntal Ghosh and Prasanna Roy, had mentioned the minister’s name.
“Over ₹40 lakh in cash was seized during the search and seizure operation, and the minister failed to clarify in clear terms why such an amount was kept at his residence,” the ED sources said.