West Bengal (The Stellar News): On Saturday, official of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested West Bengal Industries and Commerce Minister, Partha Chatterjee. He is being taken to the ED’s office and will be produced in court later in the day. Prior to the arrest, Partha Chatterjee had been questioned for around 26 hours in connection with an alleged scam in recruitment of teachers in state-run schools. The alleged scam had taken place when Chatterjee was the education minister of West Bengal.
On 22nd July, 2022, the ED conducted a raid on the properties of Partha Chatterjee as a part of an investigation in this case. The raids are being conducted at 13 locations belonging to the Minister. In addition to him, the ED also raided Minister of State for Education Paresh C Adhikary and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya. Besides, the agency included many others in the scope of investigation. The names include Arpita Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee’s close aid; Chandan Mondal, an agent in selling teacher jobs; Kalyanmay Bhattacharya, Partha Bhattacharya’s son-in-law; Dr. SP Sinha, the advisor of West Bengal Central School Service Commission; Kalyanmoy Ganguly, ex-President of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education; Saumitra Sarkar, ex-President of the West Bengal Central School Service.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the ED continued the raids on the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee in connection with the money laundering aspect of those allegedly involved in the SSC scam as on Friday a huge cash of approximately 20 crore rupees was recovered. From the numerous locations of the people connected to the fraud, the ED has also recovered some suspicious documents, records, information on some dubious enterprises, electronic gadgets, foreign currency, and gold.
The action was taken months after the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to look into the recruiting scandal involving Group “C” and “D” employees, Assistant Teachers of classes 9th to 12th, and primary teachers. The ED is probing matters involving the unlawful recruitment of non-teaching personnel, teaching staff, and primary school teachers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Report: Deepanjot Kaur (Under Training)
