The ED on Friday raided at an associate of West Bengal Partha Chatterjee, where it found ₹ 20 crore in cash. The raid at Arpita Mukherjee’s house was conducted in relation with an alleged teacher recruitment fraud in the state.
“The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam,” the investigating agency said in its statement.
The investigating teams have sought help from bank officials for counting the cash with the help of counting machines. Pictures from the raid shoes notes of ₹ 2000 and ₹ 500 that were found.
Along with the cash, over 20 cell phones were also found from Arpita Mukherjee’s residence, the reason behind keeping these many phones is also being find out.
Other than Mukherjee, the ED also conducted raids on MLA Manik Bhattacharya, Minister of State for Education Paresh C Adhikary and others.
Mr Partha Chatterjee, who is currently the minister for industries and commerce, was the education minister at the time when the alleged illegal appointments were made by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in government-run schools.
In its sharp attack, the state ruling TMC called the raids a “ploy” by the Centre to “harass” its political opponents.
“This raid by ED, a day after the spectacular Martyrs’ Day rally that created ripples all over the country, is nothing but an attempt to harass and intimidate leaders of the TMC,” said state Transport Minister Firhad Hakim.
Meanwhile, BJP alleged TMC of “aided large-scale amomalies” during the recruitment of teachers in primary, upper primary and secondary levels after coming in power.
