Bengal cash-for-school job scam: Accused businessman to turn state witness

Santu Gangopadhyay, a Kolkata-based businessman and an accused in the multi-million cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal, on Saturday wrote a letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) requesting he become a state witness.

Sources aware of the development said that in his letter to the CBI, Gangopadhay had claimed that despite being willing to divulge secrets in the school job scam much earlier, he kept quiet because he felt his life was in danger under the previous Trinamool Congress government's reign.

Now, the Kolkata-based businessman claimed in the letter to the CBI, with the change of government in West Bengal, he had gained the confidence to come forward.

Named in the chargesheet of the CBI case of recruitment of primary teachers in state-run schools, Gangopadhyay had also been arrested. However, he is currently out on bail.

He was known as an extremely close confidant of the former West Bengal Education Minister and the former Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, who had been jailed for more than three years because of his involvement in the same case. Chatterjee is also out on bail.

Sources said that in his letter to the CBI, Gangopadhyay said he and Kuntal Ghosh, one of the accused in the recruitment corruption case, delivered the money to a top leader in Trinamool Congress.

In the letter, Gangopadhyay also claimed that he and Kuntal Ghosh also faced the ire of that top Trinamool Congress leader for not being able to meet the target of collecting Rs50 million from candidates aspiring to be primary teachers in the state-run schools.

Sources said that in his letter, Gangopadhay had claimed that even after the change of government he had been getting threatening calls from people involved in the alleged school job scam.

He had also pleaded for the security of his family members.