ED questions arrested TMC MLA’s aunt in teacher recruitment case | Kolkata

“The ED summoned me to inquire about my properties. I never received any money from the alleged corruption,” Maya Saha told media persons before entering the ED office at Salt Lake in Kolkata.

“I don’t know the details. My husband, who has been a businessman for 40 years, knows everything”, she said on being asked about the properties.

While leaving the ED office around 7pm, she said, “ED officials said they will summon me again. They said the property related documents I provided were incomplete.”

Jiban Krishna Saha, the TMC legislator from Murshidabad district’s Burwan constituency was arrested from his home at Andi village on August 25 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Sainthia home of Maya Saha, his father’s sister, was also raided by ED on the same day alongside four other locations.

Also Read: ED arrests TMC MLA Jiban Saha in connection with teacher recruitment case

This is the second time Jiban Krishna Saha has been arrested in the bribe-for-job case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him in April 2023. A court granted him bail in May 2024.

Requesting anonymity, an ED official said Maya Saha was summoned after it was found that the values of several properties she and Jiban Krishna Saha own in Birbhum district were disproportionate to their declared sources of income.

The investigation started in May 2022 when the Calcutta high court ordered the CBI to probe the appointments of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the SSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when

Partha Chatterjee was the education minister. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests. ED started a parallel investigation.

The ED framed charges against Chatterjee, his associate Arpita Mukherjee, ex-state primary education board president Manik Bhattacharya and 51 others in January this year.

On August 20, a Kolkata court ordered the ED to summon state correctional services minister Chandranath Sinha to the court on September 12 so that charges filed against him can be read out before trial. Governor C V Ananda Bose’s assent to prosecute

Sinha was issued summons on August 8, two days after the ED filed chargesheet against him.

Sinha is the second state cabinet minister to face prosecution in this case after Partha Chatterjee who was arrested by ED in July 2022. He is currently in judicial custody.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira were also questioned by ED in 2023. The ruling party alleged that the recent raids were politically motivated.

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “Law will take its own course. Our party will comment on legal matters. However, the timing is significant. People of Bengal have seen how the federal agencies become proactive only before elections.”

“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may use the agencies for political gains but TMC will win the 2026 assembly polls. Mamata Banerjee will become chief minister for the fourth time,” he added.