The tide began turning from the second half of 2024, when leader after leader started getting bail.
Kolkata: If 2022 and 2023 were the worst period for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress since some of her closest associates were arrested by the Central agencies on charges of corruption, the tide seems to have turned since the second half of 2024. And in the spotlight are the investigating agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Since 2022, a host of TMC leaders, including heavyweights like the party’s then secretary-general Partha Chattopadhyay and minister Jyotipriya Mallick were picked up by the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation, in myriad cases of corruption.
The visuals of heaps of currency notes and mounds of jewellery recovered from the apartments owned by a small-time starlet, Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of Partha Chattopadhyay, created huge discomfiture for Mamata Banerjee, who had, for long, created and maintained a pristine image for herself. And though she promptly distanced herself and her party from Chattopadhyay, it was a very damning indictment of the party.
As investigations progressed, the list of arrested leaders continued to grow longer.
Partha Chattopadhyay, the former education minister was arrested by the ED in July 2022 in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission teacher recruitment scam. So was Manik Bhattacharya, the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and TMC MLA, who was arrested by the ED in October 2022 in connection with the teacher recruitment scam.
Soon after that, the CBI arrested TMC MLA Jiban Krishna Saha in April 2023 after extensive questioning related to the teacher recruitment scam.
The corruption racket also ensnared other leaders like Kuntal Ghosh, a TMC youth wing leader, and Shantanu Banerjee. Ghosh was arrested by the ED in January 2023, and Banerjee was picked up in March.
Their arrests and subsequent investigations led to the arrest of Sujoy Krishna Bhadra, commonly known as “Kalighat er Kaku” (Uncle from Kalighat) in June 2023. Bhadra was the Chief Operating Officer of Leaps and Bounds, a company set up by Mamata’s nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee. The Enforcement Directorate arrested Bhadra following reports that he used to get the money from agents like Shantanu and Kuntal and would then send the list of candidates to be appointed to Manik Bhattacharya.
Another big TMC leader to be arrested was Anubrata Mondal, the president of the party’s Birbhum unit and a strongman close to Mamata Banerjee herself. Mondal was arrested by the CBI in August 2022 for his alleged involvement in a cattle-smuggling case.
Jyotipriya Mallick, the state forest minister, was arrested by the ED in October 2023 in connection with the ration distribution scam allegedly to the tune of a substantial Rs 10,000-crore. The agency alleges that approximately Rs 2,000 crore was illicitly transferred abroad by Mallick and his associates.
Anubrata Mondal and Jyotipriya Mallick—who used to manage regions, mobilise cadres, and take care of the party funds—were close to Mamata Banerjee and seen as crucial cogs in the TMC wheel. Mondal held sway over the western region, which includes districts such as Birbhum, Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Mondal, used to manage at least six Lok Sabha constituencies in the region.
Mallick managed the largest district of Bengal (by size)—North 24-Parganas—for the party. The district has five Lok Sabha constituencies.
After the spate of arrests, a defiant Mamata Banerjee had said: “If they (ED and CBI) raid all the ministers, who is going to be left in the government? They are playing a dirty game.” Banerjee has multiple times called such actions as “political vendetta” and “an intimidation tactic to silence” her.
Apart from the arrested politicians, Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek, who is also the general secretary of the party and an MP, is being probed along with other senior leaders. More than a dozen MPs (former and current), several ministers and senior leaders were grilled, raided and probed in connection with the corruption cases.
During every hearing in the courts, the CBI and the ED put forth arguments to substantiate how hard they were working. They pointed to the all-pervasive corruption in the state. The CBI characterised the corruption in recruitment processes as “extensive”.
During a hearing in the Calcutta High Court, CBI counsel Billwadal Bhattacharya remarked that corruption is “hanging like an albatross around the neck” of the state, indicating the deep-rooted nature of the issue.
Before the Supreme Court, which the state government went in appeal many times, the CBI also highlighted challenges in conducting investigations due to non-cooperation from state authorities.
The Supreme Court upheld the necessity of uninterrupted investigations by Central agencies into corruption cases in the state. The court observed that such investigations are essential to address the schemes of corruption effectively.
However, the tide began turning from the second half of 2024, when leader after leader started getting bail. Advocate Firdous Samim, who represents a large number of young men and women whose legitimate claim for jobs still remain in limbo, said: “Are some (in the agencies) desperately trying, by their slow and shoddy work, to suppress the facts that could be detrimental to the interest of the Trinamool Congress?”
Sujan Chakraborty of the CPM alleged that leaders “close to the Chief Minister” were being granted bail.
Advocate and CPM Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya told The Sunday Guardian: “There are at least three scams the Central agencies are currently probing in West Bengal: coal smuggling, cow smuggling and jobs-for-cash. The people have a legitimate right to know why things are not moving the way they should.”
The BJP state president and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar maintains that the Central investigating agencies are doing their job “diligently”.
State BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya told The Sunday Guardian: “Though the general public is disappointed that Mamata Banerjee and her gang are not behind bars, they have to understand that the legal system is quite cumbersome. They have to understand that bail does not equate to acquittal.”
However, former BJP state president and former Governor Tathagata Roy was more outspoken. He predicted: “The people of Bengal are watching. If Mamata is not brought to book, the BJP will be wiped out from the state in the next Assembly elections.”