Bengal SSC scam: ED attaches assets worth Rs 48.22 crore linked to Partha Chatterjee

Mangalore Today News Network

Kolkata, Sep 19, 2022: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 48.22 crore linked to suspended TMC leader Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee, accused in the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam.

 

The attached assets consist of 40 immovable properties valued at Rs 40.33 crore and 35 bank accounts having a balance of Rs 7.89 crore. The attached properties include flats, a farmhouse, prime land in the city of Kolkata and bank balance.

According to sources, the attached properties were found to be beneficially owned by Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee. A number of the attached properties were kept in the name of dummy companies and firms and persons acting as proxy for Partha Chatterjee, the sources added.

The alleged teacher job scam began in 2014 when the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) issued a notification for the appointment of teachers in state-run schools in West Bengal through the State Level Selection Test (SLST).

The recruitment process began in 2016 when Partha Chatterjee was the minister-in-charge of West Bengal’s higher education and school education department. However, a series of petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging anomalies in the recruitment process.

In July 2022, the ED arrested Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee after carrying out search operations at various premises linked to the teacher recruitment scam.

The probe agency seized cash amounting to a total of Rs 49.8 crore and gold and jewellery valued at more than Rs 5.08 crore from two apartments owned by Arpita Mukherjee during raids conducted over two days.

With the present attachment, the total attachment/seizure in the case stands at Rs 103.10 crore.

Chatterjee, who held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off, was relieved of his ministerial duties by the Mamata Banerjee government following his arrest by the ED, which is probing the money trail in the case.

Courtesy: India Today