West Bengal Commerce and Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in Kolkata on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the teacher recruitment scam.
Chatterjee was the state education minister when the scam took place.
The minister was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling in connection with the probe.
“He was not cooperating with our officers who were questioning him since Friday morning. He will be produced before a court during the day,” an ED official told news agency PTI.
The ED said that it had recovered about Rs 20 crore from Arpita Mukherjee, who is allegedly close to former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee.
“During the course of searches, the ED has recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee, who is a close associate of Shri Partha Chatterjee. The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the SSC Scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines. A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Ms. Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained,” read a statement by the ED.
The ED also searched the locations linked to Partha Chatterjee, currently minister for commerce and industry; Paresh C Adhikary, minister of state for education; Manik Bhattacharya, MLA and former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education; P K Bandopadhyay, officer on special duty to Chatterjee; Sukanta Acharjee, private secretary to Chatterjee; Chandan Mondal alias Ranjan, an alleged agent in the scam; Kalyanmay Bhattacharya, son-in-law of Partha Bhattacharya; Krishna C Adhikary, a relative of Kalyanmay; Dr S P Sinha, advisor to the School Service Commission; Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education; Saumitra Sarkar, former president of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission; and Alok Kumar Sarkar, deputy director of the school education department.
