Submit names of 189 candidates found on Kuntal Ghosh’s phone: Calcutta HC – Times of India

KOLKATA: Photocopies of 189 OMR sheets and admit cards of candidates, who appeared for the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) held in November 2022, were found on Trinamool youth leader Kuntal Ghosh’s mobile phone, Saikat Banerjee, counsel for West Bengal Board of Primary Education, submitted to the Calcutta High Court on Monday.
Expressing surprise over the submission, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhay said, “How could OMR sheets reach Kuntal Ghosh’s home?” The judge then directed ED lawyer Dhiraj Trivedi to submit the names of candidates whose OMR sheets were found on Ghosh’s phone.
The judge at the outset said that he had come across media reports stating that an actor had bought two or more flats with the money allegedly collected in the job scam. Justice Gangopadhyay directed ED officials to find out the actor’s identity and submit it along with the candidates’ names.
On Monday, the ED officers questioned Ghosh in custody after retrieving the messages from his phone that he had deleted before it was seized from his Chinar Park flat.
Officials also retrieved messages that Trinamool Balagarh leader and Hooghly zilla parishad karmadhyaksha Santanu Bandopadhay had deleted from his phones before ED confiscated them from his Hooghly residence. Based on this input, the investigating agency has summoned Bandopadhyay again on Wednesday for questioning.
ED has summoned Gopal Dalapati, who has surfaced after he was said to be ‘missing’ while out on bail from Tihar jail in a Ponzi case. Ghosh and Bandopadhyay both had named Dalapati during ED interrogation. However, Dalapati has denied all charges against him.
Based on the recent developments, investigators plan to question Ghosh and Bandopadhyay separately and then bring them face to face with Dalapati and Tapas Mandal, another SSC scam accused, for interrogation.