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In what the Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleges is a "ploy" by the central government, now-sacked TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, 23 July, in connection with an alleged scam related to the recruitment of teachers in the state.
Subsequently, in a series of raid, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday recovered Rs 27.9 crore in cash along with gold jewellery from an apartment of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of arrested West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee.
The ED had earlier said that cash amounting to Rs 20 crore had been recovered from Mukherjee's Belghoria flat on Wednesday.
However, Chatterjee was removed from all party posts and suspended from the TMC, soon after he was sacked from the Mamata Banerjee Cabinet, party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said.
Amid clamour from opposition parties over the alleged misuse of central agencies to carry out "vendetta politics," the arrest of Chatterjee gains immense significance.
A once-senior minister in one of the most powerful regional parties in the country, Chatterjee, on Thursday was suspended from the Trinamool Congress, hours after being sacked from the state Cabinet.
He indicated that the decision was taken by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Chatterjee, a five-time MLA from the Behala Paschim constituency, is in many respects CM Banerjee's 'right-hand man'.
The 69-year-old leader played a myriad roles in the party's organisational structure – from presiding over its district committees to brainstorming strategies for elections.
Before he joined politics, he worked at the Andrew Yule Group, a manufacturing and industrial conglomerate.
His foray into politics came after Banerjee created the TMC in 1998 after breaking away from the Congress.
He was elected as an MLA for the first time from Behala Paschim in 2001 and has never lost the seat since.
The veteran leader also served as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) from 2006 to 2011 during the rule of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the state.
In 2014, the leader was made the minister of higher and school education of the state – a post he held for seven years until he was replaced by Bratya Basu.
The scam allegedly occurred when Chatterjee was in charge of state education as a minister.
It involved alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
The Calcutta High Court also ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter, in connection with which the senior minister was questioned twice earlier this year.
An inquiry committee that was constituted to look into the scam claimed that more than 600 staff members of Group D had been illegally recruited.
In 2016, the West Bengal government issued a notification to the SSC to recruit 13,000 Group D employees for state-aided/run schools. In 2019, the panel making the appointments expired, but despite that, several people were allegedly appointed by the WBBSE.
Four unsuccessful candidates had moved the Calcutta High Court, alleging that 523 candidates had been appointed after the panel expired.
As per an inquiry committee constituted by a division bench in 2021, a total of 381 candidates had been recruited illegally in Group C. The committee also alleged that a panel appointed by the Joint Secretary to the West Bengal government to oversee the recruitment of around 13,000 non-teaching staff did not have any legal validity.
The report further claimed that the ranks of some candidates had been changed in 2019.
Hundreds of unsuccessful students had taken to the streets to protest in Kolkata, demanding jobs in Groups C and D.
A petitioner named Babita Sarkar had also filed a case against Ankita Adhikari, the daughter of West Bengal Minister of State (MoS), Education, Paresh Adhikari, claiming that Ankita's name was on the merit list despite there being more deserving candidates.
For the teacher's recruitment, Sarkar was ranked 20th in the merit list, but her rank was later changed to 21st when Adhikari was featured on the list.
Subsequently, Ankita was made a teacher of political science in a government school in Cooch Behar.
The CBI had filed an FIR against the father-daughter duo in May this year. They were charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
During overnight raids on Friday, Adhikari's home had also been searched by the ED in connection with the probe. However, the minister claimed that he had not been informed about the ED's visit.
"They did not intimate us about the visit to our house today. I am in Kolkata in connection with the July 21 Martyrs' Day rally of the TMC. Had I been around, I would have treated them to muri (puffed rice)," the minister said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, 28 July, recovered Rs 27.9 crore in cash along with gold jewellery from an apartment of Arpita Mukherjee, an aide of Partha Chatterjee.
The ED had earlier said that cash amounting to Rs 20 crore had been recovered from Mukherjee's Belghoria flat on Wednesday.
In total, around Rs 50 crore in cash has been seized by the central agency so far, news agency PTI reported officials as saying.
Meanwhile, Mukherjee has been remanded in the ED's custody for 10 days. She will be produced on 3 August for the next hearing in the case.
The actor has been a part of some Bengali, Odia, and Tamil films. She is known most for her roles in Bengali films Jeet (2008) and Mama Bhagne (2009).
She was also a part of promotional campaigns in support of Chatterjee's popular Durga Puja committee, 'Naktala Udayan Sangha'.
TMC leader Madan Mitra described the raids by the probe agency as "unnecessary."
"I've been called by CBI, ED not less than 100 times. Partha Chatterjee (former education minister) is a very responsible and known politician of West Bengal... It (ED reaching his residence) was not needed, he was not absconding," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The TMC also called the concerted raids a "ploy" by the BJP government at the Centre to harass political opponents.
"The CBI has already interrogated them (ministers) as part of a court directive and they are cooperating. Now, the ED is being invoked only to discredit them. The money laundering issue is being invented by the BJP," he added.
(With inputs from ANI.)
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Published: 23 Jul 2022,09:28 PM IST