The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has confiscated assets valued at Rs 3.60 crore belonging to West Bengal Minister Chandranath Sinha. This action is related to his alleged involvement in a cash-for-school job case in the state. The ED seized a total of 10 properties owned by the minister, his wife, and his son, with a combined market value of around Rs 3.60 crore.
An insider from the ED mentioned that if Sinha fails to provide concrete evidence of the funding sources for purchasing these properties, they will be auctioned off. Sinha, who is also the West Bengal correctional services department minister, was accused in a chargesheet filed by the ED in the school job case. The charges against him include collecting Rs 12.75 crore from ineligible candidates for promising them primary teaching jobs in state-run schools.
The ED further alleged in the chargesheet that Sinha recommended 159 ineligible candidates for teaching positions and collected an average of Rs 8,00,000 from each candidate. The central agency insider emphasized the necessity of further questioning Sinha in the case and the potential need to take him into custody for investigation.
West Bengal Governor, C.V. Ananda Bose, had approved the ED’s chargesheet against Sinha in August last year. The ED officials obtained Sinha’s name from the diary of the middleman and suspended Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh, who was subsequently arrested. In a raid in March 2024 at Sinha’s residence in Bolpur, Birbhum district, the ED seized Rs 41 lakh in cash and a mobile phone.
Sinha has close ties with Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal, a former district president in Birbhum.
