West Bengal Correctional Administration Minister Chandranath Sinha, once known for his academic excellence with a master’s degree in mathematics from Visva-Bharati University, now finds himself at the centre of a financial controversy. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has accused him of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, linking him directly to the multi-crore primary teacher recruitment scam.
The central agency on Saturday informed a special court that ₹41 lakh in cash was recovered during a 2024 raid at Sinha’s Bolpur residence. However, the minister, an accused in primary teachers’ recruitment irregularities, could not provide convincing documentation to justify the source.
After the federal agency submitted chargesheet on September, Sinha submitted partial transaction report in which ₹19 lakh of the amount was shown as legitimate income from farming and real estate. Investigators, however, countered that even this claim lacked supporting evidence.
The ED’s chargesheet paints a grim financial picture. “Not only Sinha, but also his wife and two sons, hold large sums in their bank accounts. In the chargesheet, we pointed to glaring mismatches in his declared income and tax records, said an ED official.
Ironically, despite his academic grounding in mathematics, Sinha allegedly made “incorrect calculations” in his tax filings. He even paid a penalty of nearly ₹90 lakh to the Income Tax Department, yet offered no explanation of the money’s origin.
More damaging are the recruitment scam allegations. The ED claims that between 2014 and 2016, Sinha collected an average of ₹8 lakh each from 159 job seekers, totalling around ₹12.72 crore. But no trace of this enormous sum has been found. His alleged involvement first surfaced in the statement of expelled Trinamool youth leader Kuntal Ghosh, after which scrutiny of his accounts revealed several large transactions.
In his defence, the minister insists that farming remains his primary livelihood. To verify this, ED officials visited the Agriculture Department office in Paikar, Murarai II block of Birbhum, on Friday and collected relevant information.
For now, Sinha awaits the court’s verdict, which has been reserved until Tuesday. In Bengal’s political circles, curiosity looms large over whether the minister will be shifted to Tihar Jail.
From mastering equations in mathematics to facing unanswered questions about crores of rupees, Sinha’s alleged “financial miscalculations” have left him at the centre of the ED’s high-stakes probe.
Also read: Retired IAS Niranjan Das held in Chhattisgarh liquor scam
Follow us
