From the beginning, there was a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that Partha Chattopadhyay was not cooperating in the investigation. 'I don't know', 'I can't say' and 'I can't remember' - the answers to all the questions were mainly stuck in these three phrases. But for the first time on Tuesday, the former Education Minister (now Industries Minister) has said that he wants to cooperate with the probe, according to a source in the Central Investigation Agency. He also told the ED officers that he will bring all the information before the investigators on time.
Not only that, ED sources claim, when asked from where and from whom he got the recommendations to appoint in schools, the minister's short answer was, "recommendations came from all levels." However, he did not reveal who they were yet. According to a group of investigating officers, the minister has been harassed continuously since Friday. Was taken to Bhubaneswar-AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) on Monday morning and returned to Kolkata on Tuesday morning. This time, after some rest, he 'promised' to give 'correct' answers to all questions on time, ED sources claimed.
According to a section of investigating officers, Partha may have felt that the party is trying to sideline him. If not completely, partially. On the other hand, the problem escalated as ED remanded him till August 3 in custody. With the stress of coming up with such a big 'scandal', ED believe that the minister has given such a significant indication due to the combination of all these factors.
Yesterday, the investigators questioned Partha with a break of one hour in the afternoon and evening. A place for questioning the minister has been created in one part of the conference room by bringing several sofas together around him. But according to ED sources, when asked about education-corruption, Partha once said, 'Not everything can be taken care of', and also said, 'Even if something happened, it could have happened.' Sometimes he was heard to say, 'Many things can go unnoticed. When it came to light later, it was understood that there has been corruption.' ED executives are now finding it very important to have all these answers as well as to bring out the right information at the right time.
