Boys’ hostel or Girls’ Hostel? New twist to file download case involving ED in Kolkata

SNS, Agencies, 15 September 2023, Kolkata: There’s a new twist to the case of an ED official inadvertently downloading personal files using the computer of an office linked to Sujay Krishna Bhadra, one of the prime accused in the multi-crore cash for school jobs case in West Bengal.

Although the ED has clarified that the files were inadvertently downloaded by one of its officers after the raid and search operations were completed at the said office, and those 16 files were related to student hostels that he was searching for his daughter who took admission in a reputed engineering college in the state, the cybercrime division of Kolkata Police has claimed that the 16 files downloaded by the ED official were that of boys’ hostels.

The police have questioned as to why the ED official concerned downloaded files related to boys’ hostels, when he was searching for hostels for his daughter.

The ED official had downloaded 16 personal files while conducting raid at the said office last month, following which an employee of the corporate entity had filed a case at the cybercrime division of Kolkata Police, accusing the central agency of planting evidence.

Till the time of filing of this report, there was no counter reaction from the central agency.

The ED officer concerned has already been removed from the investigating team and transferred to Guwahati.

Incidentally, this new twist has surfaced just a day after the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha gave verbal assurance to ED of no coercive police action in the file download matter.

Justice Sinha observed that since the hard-disc of the computer in question has not been confiscated by the ED, there is no reason to believe that those files were downloaded with any ulterior motive.

Justice Sinha also told the state government counsel that she hopes that henceforth the city police will not send any further communique to the ED in this matter.