The Enforcement Directorate said on Monday that it had attached assets worth Rs 48.22 crore “beneficially owned” by former TMC minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee as part of a money laundering investigation into the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam.
The attached properties include 40 immovable assets such as a farmhouse, flats, and “prime land” in Kolkata worth a total of Rs 40.33 crore, as well as Rs 7.89 crore in deposits held in 35 bank accounts. With this, the total attachment/seizure is Rs 103.10 crore in this case.
ED has provisionally attached properties worth Rs. 48.22 Cr. in the Teachers Recruitment Scam in West Bengal. The attached properties are found to be beneficially owned by Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee. With this, total attachment/seizure is Rs. 103.10 Cr. in this case.
— ED (@dir_ed) September 19, 2022
The agency further said that several of the associated properties were registered in the names of shell companies and individuals acting as proxies for Chatterjee.
Earlier on July 22, ED conducted a raid on the properties of West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee as part of an investigation in this case and seized a total of Rs 49.80 crore, and gold and jewellery valued at more than Rs 5.08 crore from two premises belonging to Arpita Mukherjee.
On July 23, the Enforcement Directorate detained the former minister in West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee-led government and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee.
‘Worked on party orders, top leaders involved’: Ex-TMC Partha Chatterjee spills the beans about the huge cache of cash found
Notably, days after the arrest of Partha Chatterjee, the former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Minister confessed to the involvement of the party’s top leadership in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam. During the course of interrogation, he told investigators that everyone in the TMC including top party leadership was privy to his activities. He alleged that fellow TMC members were aware that money was collected in exchange for providing government school jobs to ineligible candidates.
Partha Chatterjee has been placed in the Presidency Central Correctional Home’s high-security Poila Baish section. This particular section in the prison is under 24×7 surveillance. High-profile criminals including the American Centre attack mastermind Aftab Ansari are housed in this section.
On the other hand, Arpita Mukherjee, co-accused in the case, was housed in the Alipur Women’s Central Correctional Home is located five minutes away from the Presidency Central Correctional Home.
SSC Scam
The West Bengal Teacher’s recruitment scam, more commonly referred to as the SSC scam, looks into the recruitment process conducted through the State Level Selection Test (SLT) conducted by SSC from 2014 to 2016.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) announced in 2014 that teachers would be hired at state-run schools in West Bengal through the State Level Selection Test (SLST), which is when the alleged scam first surfaced. In 2016, the hiring process got underway. At that time, Partha Chatterjee was the Minister-in-Charge of the West Bengal Department of Higher Education and School Education. Nevertheless, a number of complaints were submitted to the Calcutta High Court citing irregularities in the hiring procedure.
The petitioners alleged that many examinees who got lesser marks ranked high on the merit list. Several claims also surfaced regarding the receipt of appointment letters by some applicants who weren’t even on the merit list.
