Cash-For-Jobs Scam: Calcutta High Court Seeks ED Report On Assets Of Abhishek Banerjee, Directors Linked To His Firm 'Leaps & Bounds'

A single-bench of Justice Amrita Sinha further directed that the names and assets of all the film-industry actors who are allegedly associated with the multi-tier cash-for-jobs scam, also be placed on record.

The development comes in ongoing cases pertaining to the municipal, SSC and college-recruitment scam, being investigated jointly by the CBI and ED under the monitoring of the High Court. High-level functionaries of the State government are accused in these cases.

Earlier, Justice Sinha had asked the agencies to submit their progress reports in the matter. On Thursday, DSG Billwadal Bhattacharya handed over the reports with a prayer to keep them sealed, to prevent the accused from ascertaining the “course of investigation”.

“These acts of corruption are like the twin-towers, between the SSC and college recruitment scams…the municipal scam is perhaps as tall as the Burj-al-Arab….the investigation seeks to bring down these towers of corruption,” Bhattacharya added.

It was further argued by the Investigation agencies that despite the High Court monitoring the investigation, a Special-CBI court had acted upon a complaint by one of the accused Kuntal Ghosh alleging custodial torture, and had wrongfully directed for a joint investigation into the matter. It was submitted that the CBI-court would have no authority to overstep its jurisdiction and order for a parallel investigation while the High Court was seized of the matter.

The High Court has stayed the special court's order.

Case: Soumen Nandy v. The State of West Bengal & Ors. and connected applications

Case No. WPA 9979 of 2022 & connected applications