ED conducts fresh raids in Bengal school job case

Kolkata, Jan 18 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted fresh raids and search operations at three different locations in Kolkata in connection to the central agency’s ongoing probe in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal. 

The ED teams are being escorted by armed personnel of central armed police forces. 

According to sources, one of the three places where the raids are underway is the residence of Ronit Jha, a close associate of an accused in the school job case, Prasanna Roy, who was recently released on bail.

The sources said that besides being a close associate of Roy, Jha was also believed to close to former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress legislator Jiban Krishna Saha. 

Chatterjee and Saha are currently in judicial custody over their alleged involvement in the case. 

Jha, a.k.a. Chottu, is known in his locality as a real estate promoter. 

Thursday's raids coincide with the recent findings of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case that several registrations in a single roll number were made in case of recruitment examinations for teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools to make the process of irregularities smooth. 

The CBI had also accessed crucial clues about massive misappropriations in the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets that were used in the written examinations, the sources said.. 

The probe agency has also identified modifications in the logarithm of the portal where PDF files were converted into text modes to facilitate modifications for the purpose of conducting the irregularities. 

--IANS

src/ksk