Today, December 20, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Partha Sarkar, the Trinamool Congress councillor from Ward Number 128 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, for questioning in connection with the cash-for-school job case. Sarkar, known to be a close confidant of former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, has been asked to be present at the ED’s office in Salt Lake on December 18 with the documents sought by the central agency sleuths, as stated in a report by IANS.
Chatterjee, who was arrested by the ED in July 2022, in connection with the school job case, is currently in judicial custody of the Presidency Central Correctional Home in South Kolkata. Further, sources said that the ED has specific information about the role of the Trinamool Congress councillor in investing the alleged proceeds of the scam.
That is why, sources added, Sarkar had been asked to be present at the ED’s office along with his income tax returns certificates, details of bank accounts and properties that are in his name as well as those in the names of his family members.
Further, it is learnt that when Chatterjee was the Leader of the Opposition during the previous Left Front regime in West Bengal, Sarkar was responsible for supervising the maintenance of the private buses owned by the leader. Later, as the Trinamool Congress came to power and Chatterjee became the virtual second-in-command both within the party, as well as in the Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, there was a meteoric rise both in the financial and political fortunes of Sarkar.
Slowly, he turned into a close confidant of Chatterjee and the latter assigned several crucial assignments to him, as stated in a report by IANS.
