Kolkata, Nov 28 (IANS): Expelled youth Trinamool Congress leader, currently in judicial custody in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal, was instrumental in collecting money on behalf of the prime accused in the case, Sujay Krishna Bhadra.

This accusation came from Tapas Mondal, a third accused in the case, while speaking to the media while being presented at a special court in Kolkata for a hearing relating to the case.

“Kuntal Ghosh used to collect money from different agents involved in the school job case on behalf of Bhadra. I do not know why he is singing a different note now. It is because of Kuntal I got framed,” Mondal said.

He also claimed that Kuntal Ghosh had been deliberately trying to mislead the investigators since the beginning.

To recall, Kuntal Ghosh came into the limelight earlier this year after he accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths investigating the case of putting pressure on him to name Trinamool Congress’ National General Secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee in the case.

The main charge against Tapas Mondal is that he was acting as a middleman as the president of the All Bengal Teachers' Training Achievers' Association (ABTTAA), an umbrella organisation of private teachers' training institutes operating in the state.

Mondal was also known as an extremely close confidant of Trinamool Congress legislator and the former president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) Manik Bhattacharya, who is also in judicial custody now in connection with the school job case.

The sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI, which is conducting a parallel probe in the case, has already frozen 12 bank accounts of Mondal.

Mondal was arrested by the CBI sleuths on February 19 this year along with another middleman in the scam Niladri Ghosh.