AGENCIES | KOLKATA, 19 MAY, 2025 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued summons to a Trinamul Congress leader in West Bengal for questioning in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case. Sources aware of the development said the person summoned is Ambarish Sarkar, the Youth Trinamul Congress President of South Dinajpur district. He was issued the summons for interrogation on Monday and was asked to come to the ED’s office at the Central Government Office (CGO) complex in Salt Lake at the earliest.
Sources said that Sarkar was summoned after investigating officials received specific information about his involvement in the irregular appointments of some non-teaching staff, both in Group-C and Group-D categories. This is the first time that Sarkar has been summoned by the ED in connection with the school-job case. The investigating officials will record and corroborate his statements with those given by others questioned by the ED, who named Sarkar as involved in the matter.
Sources said that Sarkar’s name first surfaced last year when a case was filed at Gangarampur sub-divisional court in South Dinajpur by an individual accusing Sarkar of accepting cash in exchange for jobs in the Group-D category of non-teaching staff. Besides being the Youth Trinamul Congress President in South Dinajpur, Sarkar is also the Vice-President of the Zilla Parishad in the district. When the case was filed against him last year, he denied the allegations and claimed that the entire matter was a conspiracy against him.
This development surfaced at a time when “untainted” or “genuine” teachers, who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court order last month, are conducting a sit-in demonstration in front of Bikash Bhavan, the West Bengal Education Department headquarters. On April 3, a Supreme Court bench, led by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, upheld the order of the Calcutta High Court’s division bench, which had canceled 25,753 school jobs. The apex court also accepted the observation of the High Court that the entire panel of candidates had to be canceled because of the failure of the state government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to segregate the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones.
