West Bengal SSC scam: ED arrests Partha Chatterjee from Kolkata

KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested former West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam.

The arrest comes following the raids by the central probe agency where it seized Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

The arrests were made at Chatterjee's residence in Kolkata.

The ED team was at the spot since yesterday.

Earlier on Friday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided the residences of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari and several others and recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee, who is a close associate of Partha Chatterjee.

The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of said SSC scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines.

A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained, said the probe agency.

Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam.

It is noteworthy to note that the High Court of Calcutta in a slew of writ petitions had recently directed the CBI to carry out investigations into the recruitment scam of Group 'C' & 'D' staff, Assistant Teachers of classes IX-XII and primary teachers.

In these cases, involving the illegal appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C & D), teaching staff [Assistant teachers (Class IX-XII) and teachers in Primary school, ED is investigating cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)].

Further details are awaited.