West Bengal: Trinamool Congress youth leader sentenced to 14 days of judicial custody for multi-crore scam teachers' recruitment scam

Kuntal Ghosh, a youth leader from the Trinamool Congress, was sentenced to 14 days of judicial custody by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Friday, February 3. He was arrested on January 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged involvement in a multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam and has been in the agency's custody since then, as per a report by IANS.

On Friday, Ghosh appeared in court and was sentenced to 14 days of judicial custody until February 17. The counsel for the ED informed the court that he is accused of receiving approximately Rs 19 crore from various individuals in exchange for arranging teaching jobs in state-run schools. A large portion of this sum is believed to have reached former state Education Minister and Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in judicial custody in relation to the same scam.

According to the counsel, Ghosh's scam operation was two-fold. Firstly, he collected money from individuals by promising teaching jobs, and then, when the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began their investigation into the matter, Ghosh collected additional funds from the same individuals to prepare for a potential legal battle if their positions were terminated.

In the meantime, while moving his bail plea, Ghosh's counsel Raja Sengupta informed the court that the central agency had not recovered any money from Ghosh's residence. "My client has been arrested just on the basis of allegations. Hence, the case of money laundering cannot be slapped on him," he argued, as stated in a report by IANS.