Rs 20 cr and counting: ED conducts raid on Arpita Mukherjee’s Belghoria flat

New Delhi, July 27: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money trail of the teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal, on Wednesday is conducting raids on four places, including a flat owned by Arpita Mukherjee in Belgharia and recovered a huge cache of currency notes. Mukherjee is a close aide of Senior West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee.

According to the reports, the central agency had recovered fresh cash stacks from Mukherjee's Belgharia-Rathtala flat. Rs 20 crores have been counted so far and further recovery of money is expected. The value of total recovery so far has touched Rs 45.22 crore.

Four counting machines have been brought to Mukherjee's flat in Belgharia, indicating that the amount might be bigger than the previous recovery when the agency found Rs 21 crore in cash from one of her residential premises. These machines were brought from SBI Regional HQ in Kolkata.

Earlier on Saturday, the ED had seized ₹21.9 crore in cash from another flat owned by Arpita.

The ED had earlier arrested Partha Chatterjee, who is also TMC secretary general, on Saturday in connection with its investigation into the irregularities in the recruitment of teachers by the School Service Commission.

The agency also issued summons to Manik Bhattacharya, TMC MLA and former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), for questioning in connection with the alleged irregularities in SSC recruitments. Bhattacharya was questioned on Wednesday.