The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition by Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers in West Bengal, Live Law reported.
Bhattacharya formerly a chairperson of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education. The MLA from the Palashipara Assembly constituency in Nadia district had been arrested on October 11 for allegedly not cooperating with the investigation.
A bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Vikram Nath on Thursday refused to interfere with the central agency’s decision to arrest Bhattacharya. They said that the MLA’s request to meet his counsels should be made before an appropriate court.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Bhattacharya, told the judges that his client has been cooperating with the inquiry. He noted that the court had earlier granted him protection from arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, said high-level officials are involved in the case. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju told the court that the agency was working to uncover a “scam of extraordinary dimension”.
So far, six persons have been arrested by both the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation, including former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee.
The other officials arrested by the agencies are former chairperson of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former chairperson of West Bengal School Service Commission Subires Bhattacharya, former advisor of the commission Santi Prasad Sinha, and former secretary of the body Ashok Kumar Saha.
Bhattacharya had been mentioned in the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate against Chatterjee, who was arrested along with his aide Arpita Mukherjee on July 23. The Enforcement Directorate has claimed that that they had found a WhatsApp conversation on Chatterjee’s phone which showed that Bhattacharya had been involved in collecting bribes.
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