Court rejects bail plea of Trinamool MLA Jiban Krishna Saha in SSC recruitment case

Kolkata, Nov 6 (IANS) A city court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment corruption case.

The Trinamool Congress legislator had applied for bail at the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court earlier in the day. However, the judge rejected the application and ordered his judicial custody till November 18.

It may be noted that before the Durga Puja holidays, the central investigation agency had filed a charge sheet against him in the case. At that time, the ED had informed that it was probing allegations of financial corruption related to the SSC recruitment process.

The agency told the court that transactions worth more than Rs 1.2 crore had been detected. The matter of transactions in Grameen Bank and his wife's account also came up.

Along with this, the ED informed the court about allegations of accepting money from job seekers and later returning it. The investigators have mentioned these allegations in the charge sheet.

The ED further said that the money allegedly linked to Jiban Krishna Saha in the recruitment corruption case is also being traced to determine to whom it went at higher levels.

It may be recalled that in August, the ED arrested the Trinamool Congress MLA from his residence in Burwan, Murshidabad district. The legislator reportedly tried to flee his house by scaling a boundary wall and also threw one of his two mobile phones into a bush.

However, ED officials did not let him escape, and also recovered the mobile phone. After he failed to provide satisfactory answers regarding lakhs of rupees found in the bank accounts of his relatives, the central agency placed him under arrest.

In April 2023, the CBI had arrested Saha in the same case. After spending around 13 months in custody, he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.

According to sources, ED officials have claimed before the court that proceeds from the scam were deposited in batches into the bank account of Jiban Krishna Saha.

The ED's case stems from a CBI FIR registered on the orders of the Calcutta High Court into alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group C and D staff, assistant teachers of classes 9 to 12, and primary teachers. The central agency has so far filed four charge sheets and arrested several key figures, including former state education minister Partha Chatterjee, his alleged aide Arpita Mukherjee, and ex-Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya.

--IANS

sch/pgh