West Bengal: ED continues raid at minister Partha Chatterjee's residence

The raid, which started on Friday morning at the commerce and industry minister's house in South Kolkata's Naktala area, has now gone on for over 24 hours, sources told UNI news agency.

The ED on Friday night claimed to have recovered approximately Rs 20 crore in cash, suspected to be the "proceeds of the School Service Commission (SSC) scam", from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee - said to be an aide of Chatterjee.

At least nine ED officials are taking part in the raid as part of the central agency's probe into the money laundering angle of the scam that relates to "illegal appointments" of non-teaching and teaching staff during Chatterjee's tenure as state education minister.

Chatterjee's lawyer was also present at the residence, where some central forces are stationed to prevent any untoward incident from happening.

A number of city police personnel are also posted on the lane outside the house.

ED sleuths on Friday carried out simultaneous raids at the premises of a number of associates and close relatives of Chatterjee - including his son-in-law Kalyanmay Bhattacharya - in various parts of the state.

Search operations were also conducted at the residence of the incumbent minister of state for education Paresh Chandra Adhikari in Mekhliganj of Cooch Behar district in North Bengal.

Besides, the residence of a ruling Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya, a former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education Board, and premises of a number of current and former officials were also raided over their alleged links to the scam.

ED recovers Rs. 20 cr cash after raids on West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee's aide

According to the ED, besides recovering the huge amount of cash, it also recovered 20 mobile phones from Arpita Mukherjee, "purpose and use of which is being ascertained".

"The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines," the ED said in a media release.

"Further, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold have also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam," the ED release said.

The Calcutta High Court in a slew of writ petitions had in April directed the CBI to carry out investigation into the recruitment scam of Group ‘C’ & ‘D’ staff, assistant teachers of classes IX-XII and primary teachers.

"In these cases, involving the illegal appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C & D), assistant teachers of Class IX-XII and teachers in Primary school, ED is investigating cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002," the ED said.

Earlier, Chatterjee and Adhikari were both quizzed multiple times by the CBI.

Adhikari's daughter has been sacked from her job as a school teacher as per a Calcutta High Court order, over allegations of irregularity in securing employment by ignoring the merit list.

She was asked to return the entire salary she received from her job and has been blocked from entering the school premises.

(With UNI inputs)