Primary School Teacher Recruitment Scam | Calcutta High Court Holds Closed Door Hearing After CBI & ED File Reports On Progress Of Investigation

The Calcutta High Court today held a closed-door hearing on the Primary Teacher's Recruitment/Cash for Jobs scam which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

Yesterday, the CBI and ED filed their reports regarding the progress of the investigation before a single bench of Justice Amrita Sinha.

Upon taking the reports on record, the Court had directed the matter to appear in the list at 3:30pm today after perusal of the same. 

The ED had submitted that it had attached properties worth ₹7.5 crores belonging to Leaps & Bounds, a firm linked to TMC Abhishek Banjeree, and would go into further detail regarding the same at today's hearing. Court had also directed the Joint Director of the ED to appear before it in order to speed up the investigation. 

However, when it came time for the matter to be taken up, the Court directed for the live-streamed proceedings to be paused and for all those who were not litigants or advocates involved in the present case to vacate the courtroom. 

This follows an earlier decision taken by the bench of Justice Sinha who had directed that hearings in the recruitment scam case would be held in-camera due to the sensitive information being stated by the CBI & ED as well as pursuant to a Division Bench verdict advising the single-bench to not make any adverse remarks regarding the accused in the case, including TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee. 

Case: Soumen Nandy v State of West Bengal

Case No: WPA 9979/2022