On 20.03.2023, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) apprehended Ayan Sil, a middleman/agent involved in the unlawful recruitment of teachers and employees in the state of West Bengal, and brought him before the PMLA Spl. Court. His ED has been given possession by the court for 13 days (till 01-04-2023). On 18/19.03.2023, the ED conducted searches at 9 sites associated with Santanu Banerjee and Ayan Sil in the West Bengal Teacher Recruitment Scam.
The search operation, which ended in the early hours of 20.03.2023, resulted in the recovery of damning papers and electronic records/devices pointing to a massive collection of unlawful money amounting to crores of rupees from primary teacher job applicants. Numerous damning papers corroborating/ exposing illegalities in the recruitment of mazdoors (labour), clerks, peons, mistry, and drivers in West Bengal Municipality were also found and confiscated during the raids of Ayan Sil’s properties.
The ED has arrested six people so far in the Teachers Recruitment Scam in West Bengal, including Partha Chatterjee, MLA and the then Education Minister of West Bengal; Ms Arpita Mukherjee, Manik Bhattacharya, MLA, TMC and the Ex-President of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee, and Ayan Sil. Moreover, the ED has already seized cash totalling Rs. 49.80 crores, gold and jewellery worth more than Rs. 5.08 crore, and provisionally attached assets worth Rs. 48.22 crores in the investigation. So far, the total seizure and attachment in the case are Rs. 111 Crore. Further research is being conducted.
