Teacher scam: Trinamool MLA arrested under CBI probe, 12 bank accounts of wife

Kolkata (IANS) | The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal, is probing 12 bank accounts of arrested Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha and his wife Togori Saha. Sources said that of the 12 accounts maintained in various public sector and private banks, eight are in Murshidabad district while the remaining four are in Birbhum district. It is learned that the 12 bank accounts have a combined deposit of a little over Rs 12 crore. Saha, who is currently in CBI custody, is being questioned by the CBI about the sources of such huge deposits.

Sources said that of the 12 accounts, four are in the name of the arrested MLA, three in the name of his wife and the remaining five jointly. Earlier, the CBI had tracked several high-value properties owned by Saha and his family members. What came as a surprise to the CBI is that most of these high-value properties owned by Saha and his family members are located in Birbhum district, while Saha is a Trinamool MLA from Burwan assembly constituency in his home district Murshidabad.

This has given rise to the question of Saha’s possible link to the cattle smuggling scam, given that Birbhum was the epicenter of the cattle scam, with the ruling party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal already in judicial custody. Sources said that being a border district, Murshidabad has strong links with the cattle smuggling scam as cows smuggled from various cattle trading centers in Birbhum were sent to Bangladesh through the Murshidabad border.

The CBI has also learned that Saha and Mondal had extremely cordial relations. Meanwhile, following protocol, the CBI on Tuesday informed Speaker Biman Banerjee’s office about Saha’s arrest, as he is a sitting member of the House.

–IANS