Bengal school job case: ED submits report about a corporate entity

Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Thursday submitted a report to a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court about a corporate entity whose name surfaced in the course of the investigation by the central agency in the cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

The report, filed in a sealed envelope at the bench of Justice Amrita Sinha, also has the details of the assets and properties of the present and former directors of the company.

After receiving the report from the ED sleuths, Justice Sinha said that she will give her observations on the report only after thoroughly going through it. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case, is also supposed to submit its own progress report on the investigation at the Calcutta High Court this week.

On December 12, Justice Sinha had directed the ED to submit specific details in its report about the said corporate entity as well as its present and former directors. She specially insisted on submitting ED findings about the sources of funds for the creation of the assets and properties of the directors of the said corporate entity.

The other details sought from her bench included the nature of business of the said corporate entity, their client lists, bank account details of the directors and employees of the said corporate entity and the details relating to the change in the address of the registered office of the entity, among others.

The next hearing in the matter is scheduled on December 20, by when the progress report from CBI will also be finalised.

ED sleuths are already running against time in its course of investigation as the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar has directed the central agency to wind up its investigation process in the matter by December 21.

In fact, on December 12, Justice Sinha also questioned ED's counsel on whether the investigating officials are sure of winding up the probe process as directed by the court, the ED counsel said that all efforts are being made to meet the deadline. The ED counsel replied that they are moving at a galloping speed as new evidence is surfacing daily during the course of investigation.