BJP shares video of Mamata interacting with minister's aide Arpita Mukherjee
New Delhi, July 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hinted at a connection between minister Partha Chatterjee's aide, Arpita Mukherjee and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP's IT Cell chief and co-incharge of the BJP's Bengal module, Amit Malviya tweeted, "not too long ago, Mamata Banerjee, from an open platform, praised Partha Chaterjee's close aide, from whose residential premise, ED seized a small sum of 20 crore. Mamata knew of her and the 'good work' she was doing. Make no mistake, Partha wasn't scamming on his own accord..."
Not too long ago, Mamata Banerjee, from an open platform, praised Partha Chaterjee’s close aide, from whose residential premise, ED seized a small sum of 20 crore. Mamata knew of her and the “good work” she was doing. Make no mistake, Partha wasn’t scamming on his own accord... pic.twitter.com/JP0jmDaXoW
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) July 23, 2022
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out simultaneous raids at the houses of around a dozen people, including two ministers, in connection with its investigation into the teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal and seized around Rs 20 crore in cash.
ED arrests Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee over teacher recruitment scam
Sources in the central agency said the money was seized from the residence of a close associate of senior minister Partha Chatterjee who was questioned by the sleuths for over 11 hours, news agency PTI reported.
ED
sleuths
also
visited
another
minister
Paresh
Adhikari's
home
in
Cooch
Behar
district
in
the
northern
part
of
the
state
and
talked
to
his
family
members.
He
is
currently
in
Kolkata.
Besides,
they
carried
out
simultaneous
raids
in
the
houses
of
former
adviser
of
the
West
Bengal
School
Service
Commission
(SSC)
Shanti
Prasad
Sinha,
ex-president
of
the
West
Bengal
Board
of
Secondary
Education
Kalyanmoy
Ganguly
and
nine
others,
the
official
said.
The CBI, as directed by the Calcutta High Court, is looking into the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam.
Arpita Mukherjee: The lady who shot to fame with her TMC connection (5 points)
"ED is carrying out search operations at various premises linked to recruitment scam in the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board," the agency said on its official Twitter handle.
The agency shared four photographs of piles of cash in the denomination of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 besides a number of sealed packets inside a room, without disclosing the quantity or the owner of the place.
ED sources, however, said that around Rs 20 crore in cash and more than 15 mobile phones were seized from the residence of a woman, a close associate of Chatterjee, in the city's Tollygunge area following a raid there in the evening, an official said.
It
is
learnt
that
she
has
acted
in
several
Bengali,
Odia
and
Tamil
films
in
recent
years.
At
least
7-8
ED
officials
reached
the
Naktala
residence
of
Chatterjee,
the
former
education
minister,
at
around
8:30
am
with
a
few
CRPF
personnel
keeping
guard
outside.
They
questioned
him
for
more
than
11
hours
about
the
alleged
scam.
At one point of time, the senior Trinamool Congress leader complained of uneasiness following which a team of doctors from the state-run SSKM Hospital were called by the ED sleuths, a source said.
"An ECG was conducted on the minister and his condition was stable," said the source, who is close to the minister.
SSC recruitment scam: ED raids houses of 2 Bengal ministers over alleged irregularities
During the interrogation, ED officials took away mobile phones of the minister's personal assistant as well as the security guards.
Chatterjee, currently industries and commerce minister, held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off. He was interrogated by the CBI twice earlier, once on April 26 and then on May 18.
Raids were also conducted at the residence of one of Chatterjee's close associates at Pingla in Paschim Medinipur district, an official of the ED said, though he declined to comment whether the raid was in connection with the probe into the same scam or not.
The agency sleuths, who raided Adhikari's residence at Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar district questioned his family members, including his daughter Ankita Adhikari, in his absence, he stated.
Ankita
recently
lost
her
job
as
an
assistant
teacher
at
a
government
school
where
she
was
appointed
through
the
SSC
two
years
ago
after
it
was
found
"illegal"
by
the
high
court.
Adhikari
who
had
also
been
grilled
by
the
CBI
earlier
told
reporters
in
Kolkata
he
could
not
get
in
touch
with
his
family
over
the
phone.
"They did not intimate us about the visit to our house today. I am in Kolkata in connection with the July 21 Martyrs' Day rally of the TMC. Had I been around, I would have treated them to muri (puffed rice)," he said.
ED sleuths also carried out simultaneous raids at the residences of former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Manik Bhattacharya, as well as the board's interim-president Ratna Chakraborty Bagchi, who is also its secretary.
The TMC described the concerted raids as a "ploy" by the BJP government at the Centre to harass political opponents.
"This raid by ED, a day after the spectacular Martyrs' Day rally that created ripples all over the country, is nothing but an attempt to harass and intimidate leaders of the TMC.
"The CBI has already interrogated them (ministers) as part of a court directive and they are cooperating. Now, the ED is being invoked only to discredit them. The money laundering issue is being invented by the BJP," senior TMC leader and minister Firhad Hakim said.
The BJP, however, alleged that the TMC aided large-scale anomalies in the recruitment process of teachers at the primary, upper primary and secondary levels since coming to power in the state.
"TMC leaders and people close to them duped lakhs of qualified youths and handed over their jobs to ineligible ones. The CBI and ED are progressing on the right path. More skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard. The BJP has no role to play in the issue," the saffron party's national vice-president, Dilip Ghosh, added.