Kolkata, Dec 23 (IANS) Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing a multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal, received a major setback on Monday as nine accused persons filed petitions at a special court in Kolkata, seeking relief from the case.

The ED was expected to file the charge sheet against the accused at the special court in the second half of Monday.

The most prominent name to file the relief petition is the Trinamool Congress legislator and the former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Manik Bhattacharya. His wife Shatarupa Bhattacharya and son Sauavik Bhattacharya were among the nine who have filed relief petitions.

The ground of Bhattacharya’s relief petition was that ED failed to comply with the court’s directive to file a “closure report,” of the investigation in the case.

The fourth person to file the relief petition is the former and now suspended youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh. The grounds for his filing the relief petition are the difference in the charges framed against him and the different charge sheets filed by ED in the matter.

The other five who have filed the relief petition include employees of corporate entities who have been named in the subsequent charge sheets filed by ED in the matter. Their grounds were that they could not get through the voluminous charge sheet copies that were forwarded to them before the charge framing process.

The nine individuals who have filed relief petitions were named in subsequent charge sheets filed by ED in the matter. ED had given a total of 54 names in the charge sheet, out of which 29 are individuals and the remaining 24 are corporate entities or trusts.

The prime trust named in the charge sheet is Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the deceased wife of Partha Chatterjee. The ED has claimed in the charge sheet that proceeds in the school job case were shown as donations to the trust and thus diverted.

Courtesy Media Group: IANS

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