Kolkata, Feb 24 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Bibhas Adhikari in the primary school recruitment case in West Bengal, said agency sources on Tuesday.
Adhikari is a close associate of Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya, who was arrested by the ED in the teacher recruitment scam in the primary section.
Bhattacharya is currently out on bail which was granted to him by the Calcutta High Court in 2024.
It may be noted that along with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the ED, too, has been investigating the teacher recruitment case.
Earlier, both the ED and the CBI had conducted searches at multiple addresses of Bibhas Adhikari including Nalhati in Birbhum district.
The CBI had also summoned him several times. The court has also submitted a chargesheet against Bibhas in the recruitment case. This time, the ED has summoned him for questioning.
Incidentally, Bibhas, the former Trinamool Congress president of Block-II of Nalhati in Birbhum district, was involved in the recruitment case after the arrest of the former president of the West Bengal Primary Education Board and Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya.
He was known as Manik’s ‘close friend’.
Bibhas was also the former president of the private B.Ed and D.L.Ed college organisation.
Soon after Manik’s arrest in 2022, ED officials searched a flat on Amherst Street in north Kolkata. The ED claimed that Bibhas was linked to that flat. After the search operation, the flat was also sealed.
In April 2023, the CBI conducted a search operation at Bibhas’ house and ashram in Birbhum. They seized a large number of documents from there. After that, CBI officials summoned him to the Nizam Palace office in Kolkata several times.
It is worth noting that Kuntal Ghosh, a former Trinamool youth leader from Balagarh in Hooghly district, who was arrested in the recruitment scam, questioned why Bibhas was not being arrested. Not only that, Gopal Dalpati, who was also involved in the recruitment scam, too, spoke out against Bibhas. Later, the CBI raided Bibhas’ house and ashram in Nalhati.
In October 2025, the CBI submitted the final chargesheet in the primary recruitment scam case. A chargesheet was filed against Manik Bhattacharya, Bibhas Adhikari and Ratna Bagchi, one of the accused in the recruitment case.
The CBI investigation revealed that 350 people were given jobs through roundabout means in the primary recruitment. Investigators suspect that Bibhas was working as an agent in this ring.
–IANS
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