SSC recruitment scam: ED raids houses of 2 Bengal ministers over alleged irregularities

New Delhi, July 22: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday carried out raids at the houses of two West Bengal ministers in connection with the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff in the state-run schools through the School Service Commission (SSC).

Raids took place in at least 13 places across the state. At least seven to eight ED personnel arrived at the house of Partha Chatterjee, state industry and commerce minister, in south Kolkata.

Another team reached the premises of the minister of state for education Paresh Chandra Adhikary's home at Cooch Behar in North Bengal.

Officials had also carried out a simultaneous raid at the residence of the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Manik Bhattacharya, in Jadavpur area of the city.

The CBI had been looking into the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C, D staff and teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission, as directed by the high court, and the ED was tracking the money trail in the scam.

Chatterjee, currently industries and commerce minister, held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off. He was interrogated by the CBI twice, once on April 26 and then on May 18.

Adhikari, the minister of state (MoS) for education, had also been grilled by the CBI with his daughter losing her job as a school teacher. He told reporters he could not get in touch with his family over the phone.

"They did not intimate us about their visit to our house today. I am in Kolkata in connection with July 21 Martyrs' Day rally of the TMC. Had I been around I would have treated them to muri (puffed rice)," he said.