Leader of Opposition in state assembly Suvendu Adhikari claimed that more than 100 Trinamool MLAs (including some former) worked as agents in the WBSSC recruitment scam and collected money from candidates.

“In next 6-8 months, the number of Trinamool MLAs will go below 100 following the probe,” Adhikari’s claimed, two days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Bengal. At a time when Shah visited Bengal, Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) intensified its raids in several locations in Bengal from Friday in connection with WBSSC scam from Friday and conducted more than 50-hour long raid (till the time of reporting) in Trinamool MLA Jiban Krishna Saha’s residence from Murshidabad’s Burwan Constituency and other persons. The agency recovered several incriminating materials-primary and upper teachers recruitment related documents containing the list of the candidates, pen drives, mobile phone and financial amounts mentioned against the names of candidates.

“I have worked with the Trinamool Congress for many years, I can say at least 100 MLAs (including some who have not received tickets in 2016) have worked as agents of WBSSC scam in the education sector. They have collected at least 15-18 lakh from each candidate and around Rs 10 lakhs in each case has been sent to Kalighat and the rest has been kept by them,” Adhikari alleged.

“In next 6-10 months, the total number of Trinamool’s MLAs will be reduced below 100 in the state assembly,” Adhikari said, hinting that the probe might expose more MLAs. “The MLAs have given jobs to their own relatives and have sold jobs in lieu of huge amounts of money.”
Trinamool Congress leader and state minister Firhad Hakim said, “Agency does its work in Bengal independently unlike other states, and it is not stopped here. If someone has done wrong, court will do it work and accused will be punished,”

Search is on at Trinamool MLA Jiban Krishna Saha’s house for more than 50 hours where around 3400 documents, related to primary, upper primary, Class IX and X and admit cards, have been recovered, people in the know said. These documents were found in five bags from the premises of Saha’s house.

“…while conducting the searches, 5 bags of documents were recovered from bushes adjacent to the boundary wall of his residence. The alleged documents affixed with photographs of aspiring candidates who had submitted bribe money were recovered. It was alleged that the bribe collected from the candidates was estimated to be running into multiple crores,” a CBI statement confirmed.

“It was alleged that the accused (Saha) acted as conduit in collecting money from the candidates by promising them jobs in the education department as teachers in the recruitment process of 1st SLST 2016 for 9th & 10th class. During searches, several incriminating materials including primary & upper teachers recruitment and documents containing the list of the candidates & amounts mentioned against them were recovered,” CBI said in a statement.

Meanwhile, drama unfolded in Saha’s house on Friday as he threw his two mobile phones and pen drives into a pond adjacent to his house as CBI officials arrived in his house for search. It took at least two days to recover one mobile phone, pumping out water from the pond and then digging into the mud below to find the mobile phone today. Saha even threw bricks on Sunday to show the location of the mobile phone, to reconstruct the event. Second mobile phone is yet to be found.

The CBI on Saturday conducted searches at six places across West Bengal in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam case.

Apart from MLA Saha’s house in Murshidabad, the central agency raided houses of alleged middleman Gopal Dalapati in East Midnapore and Bibhas Chandra Adhikary, chairperson of Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsang Mission Sadhanpith Trust in Birbhum. The CBI also searched a flat of Adhikary in Kolkata. Adhikaryalso runs B.Ed and D.El.Ed colleges in Kolkata and Birbhum.

“It was alleged that the said persons (Adhikary and Dalapaty) had acted as conduit between other accused and the aspiring candidates in collecting money from the candidates by promising them jobs as primary teachers in Primary Teachers Recruitment process – 2016, an agency statement said.

On Saturday, in a marathon search, Bibhas Chandra Adhikary, Chairperson of Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsang Mission Sadhanpith Trust, his house and other premises were searched. Adhikary was a former Block President of Trinamool Congress.
“The searches were conducted in 6 places in Kolkata, Purba Medinapur, Birbhum districts belonging to Adhikary and also at the premises of Gopal Dalapati at Purba Medinipur. During searches, several incriminating materials including primary teachers recruitment were recovered,” sources said. Adhikary ran B.Ed and D.El.Ed colleges in Birbhum and Kolkata.

It was alleged that the said persons had acted as conduit between other accused and the aspiring candidates in collecting money from the candidates by promising them jobs as primary teachers in Primary Teachers Recruitment process – 2016, a CBI official said.