Why Trinamool's Manik Bhattacharya held by ED despite protection from arrest by SC

Manik Bhattacharya, Trinamool Congress MLA and former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on grounds of non-cooperation with the agency’s probe in connection with the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal.

Bhattacharya, a second Bengal MLA to be arrested after Partha Chatterjee in the connection with the case, was held on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

In September, Bhattacharya had approached the Supreme Court, after the single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the Calcutta high court had ordered him to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On September 30, the top court provided relief to Bhattacharya from arrest by the central agency till further orders.

A senior ED official, however, told HT that the relief provided to Bhattacharya by the apex court was for CBI, and not for the ED. The ED has been running a parallel investigation into the scam and arrested the MLA after consulting with legal team experts.

The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam, while the CBI is looking into the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment.

The Trinamool leader would be produced in a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Tuesday.

It is alleged that several people who fared poorly in the recruitment examinations were hired as teachers in exchange for lakhs of rupees, while the eligible candidates were overlooked.

In July, the ED arrested Chatterjee, former West Bengal education minister, in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam.