Express News Service
KOLKATA: A day after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of misusing central agencies against her party leaders, Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths arrived at former education minister and party secretary general Partha Chatterjee’s house in Kolkata on Friday and interrogated him for nearly 10 hours over alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers in schools through the School Service Commission.
The ED recovered Rs 20 crore from one of the locations, owned by a woman known to Chatterjee. “During the course of searches, the ED recovered Rs 20 crore cash from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee. The sum is suspected to be proceeds of SSC scam,” ED stated.
ED teams, comprising 80 personnel, conducted simultaneous raids at 13 locations, including houses of state minister Paresh Adhikari in Cooch Behar and former advisor of SSC’s screening committee Santi Prasad Sinha.
Chatterjee, who is now the commerce and industries minister, has been interrogated by the CBI twice in this case. While he could not be contacted, Adhikari said, “I am in Kolkata. I heard that ED officials reached my house but I don’t know the details.’’ The Calcutta HC had found appointment of Adhikari’s daughter as a teacher was illegal and terminated her service asking her to refund the salary.
The TMC described the ED’s action politically motivated. “The BJP got scared of the roars of our lakhs of supporters who turned up at our Martyrs’ Day event,’’ said state minister Firhad Hakim. Rubbishing the allegation, BJP’s Dilip Ghosh said, “The law is taking its own course.”
KOLKATA: A day after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of misusing central agencies against her party leaders, Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths arrived at former education minister and party secretary general Partha Chatterjee’s house in Kolkata on Friday and interrogated him for nearly 10 hours over alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers in schools through the School Service Commission.
The ED recovered Rs 20 crore from one of the locations, owned by a woman known to Chatterjee. “During the course of searches, the ED recovered Rs 20 crore cash from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee. The sum is suspected to be proceeds of SSC scam,” ED stated.
ED teams, comprising 80 personnel, conducted simultaneous raids at 13 locations, including houses of state minister Paresh Adhikari in Cooch Behar and former advisor of SSC’s screening committee Santi Prasad Sinha.
Chatterjee, who is now the commerce and industries minister, has been interrogated by the CBI twice in this case. While he could not be contacted, Adhikari said, “I am in Kolkata. I heard that ED officials reached my house but I don’t know the details.’’ The Calcutta HC had found appointment of Adhikari’s daughter as a teacher was illegal and terminated her service asking her to refund the salary.
The TMC described the ED’s action politically motivated. “The BJP got scared of the roars of our lakhs of supporters who turned up at our Martyrs’ Day event,’’ said state minister Firhad Hakim. Rubbishing the allegation, BJP’s Dilip Ghosh said, “The law is taking its own course.”
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