Trinamul Congress youth wing leader Santanu Banerjee, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday in connection with the multi-crore teacher’s recruitment scam in West Bengal, was remanded to threeday ED custody by a special PMLA court here on Monday.

The ED on Friday arrested Banerjee after interrogating him for eight hours in Kolkata.

Santanu however, denied his involvement claiming neither he had taken any money nor has he given it to anybody. All these were the conspiracy against him to implicate him in the scam.

Although the ED counsel had made a plea for 14-day custody of Banerjee, the principal nodal officer of Hooghly district zilla parishad, the judge granted remand till 13 March.

The case was registered on the orders of Calcutta High Court against the then minister-in-charge, department of school education and others on the allegations of illegal appointment of assistant teacher for classes of 11th and 12th standard.

It was further alleged that the then advisor of West Bengal Central School Service Commission was part of the network which was involved in illegally accommodating undeserving candidates for appointment in SSC scam cases.

Santanu Banerjee, the Trinamul Congress Hooghly zilla parishad official and a Trinamul youth congress leader, who was arrested by ED in connection with his alleged complicity in cash-for-job scam yesterday, had taken Rs 4 to 5 lakh per candidate and had received 80 lakh from the arrested Trinanul Youth Congress general secretary and Hooghly resident Kuntal Ghosh, claimed the ED. He would then use his clout to recommend jobs for undeserving aspirants to former primary board president Manik Bhattacharya.

Banerjee’s name first cropped up after revelations from arrested Bengal Teachers Training Association president Tapas Mondal. Mondal had claimed that Banerjee acted as a main guarantor of jobs as Kuntal would transfer money received from him.

Former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee are facing a probe into the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam.

In October 2022, the CBI filed a charge sheet against 12 persons, including former chairman of the WBCSSC Subiresh Bhattachary, in connection with the alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers through the WBSSC