Kolkata, July 23: Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested on Saturday and his aide Arpita Mukherjee was detained by ED in a teacher recruitment scam case according to the officials. The arrest comes following the raids by the central probe agency where it seized ₹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. Partha Chatterjee, who is currently the industry minister, was taken to the ED’s office at CGO Complex in Salt Lake area.
“He was not cooperating with our officers who were questioning him since Friday morning. He will be produced before a court during the day,” the ED official told media. The officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) interrogated West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee overnight in connection with the teacher recruitment scam case.
The agency sleuths, who started the interrogation at the residence of the minister at 8 AM on Friday, are still continuing with the process. ED officials have recovered ₹20 crore in cash from one of the properties of Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee in south Kolkata, sources said.
Chatterjee was the state education minister when the scam took place and ED is probing the money laundering aspect of those allegedly involved in it. 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.
