ED arrests Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee over teacher recruitment scam

Kolkata, July 23: West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested on Saturday from his residence in Kolkata by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged recruitment scam in state-run schools.

"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 PTI.

The ED on Friday said it has seized Rs 20 crore cash after raiding the premises of a "close associate" of West Bengal Minister.

The probe agency launched coordinated searches at the premises of Chatterjee, the state industries and commerce minister, his aide Arpita Mukherjee, Minister of State for Education Paresh C Adhikary, MLA and ex-president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya and a number of other persons.

It said the search team is taking the assistance of bank officials to count the seized cash using machines. "More than 20 mobile phones have also been seized from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained," the ED said.

The others who were raided include P K Bandopadhyay, OSD to Partha Chatterjee when he was the state education minister earlier, his then personal secretary Sukanta Acharjee, Chandan Mondal alias Ranjan, a "tout" who allegedly used to take money on the promise of giving school teacher jobs, Kalyanmay Bhattacharya, son-in-law of Partha Bhattacharya; Krishna C Adhikary, and Dr S P Sinha, advisor of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission - convenor of the 5-member committee.

Kalyanmoy Ganguly, the ex-president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education; Saumitra Sarkar, ex-president of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission; and Alok Kumar Sarkar, the deputy director of the School Education Department were also raided.

The ED said, "A number of incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold have been recovered from the premises of persons linked to the scam."

The ED's money-laundering case stems from an FIR by the CBI, which was first directed by the Calcutta High Court to investigate the alleged scam in the recruitment of Group 'C' and 'D' staff, assistant teachers of classes 11 and 11 and primary teachers.