A close associate of Trinamool Congress Party leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested on July 22, 2022, and the Enforcement Directorate seized cash totalling nearly 20 crore rupees and 20 mobile phones. In relation to a recruiting fraud involving the West Bengal School Service Commission (WB-SSC) and the West Bengal Primary Education Board, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches at several sites.

A sizable sum of money—roughly 20 crore rupees—was seized from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close friend of Partha Chatterjee, who was the target of an ED raid. The money, according to a statement from the central agency, is supposedly the proceeds of the SSC Scam.

Other than that, the ED has also retrieved some suspicious documents, records, and information on doubtful businesses, electronic devices, foreign currency, and gold from the various locations of the individuals related to the fraud.

After the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to investigate the hiring scam involving Group “C” and “D” workers, Assistant Teachers of classes 9 through 12, and primary teachers, the action was taken months later. Under the Prevention of Abusive Discrimination in Employment Act, the ED is looking into cases involving the illegal hiring of non-teaching staff, teaching staff, and primary school instructors.

One of the individuals under investigation is Partha Chatterjee, a minister in the Mamata Banerjee administration in Bengal. Partha Chatterjee’s residences were searched by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday as part of the inquiry into this matter. 13 premises owned by the Minister are the target of the raids because of his role in the SSC fraud. According to the claims, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader who is currently the Industry Minister was the Education Minister at the time of the alleged illegal hirings.

The ED also conducted raids on TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya and Minister of State for Education Paresh C. Adhikary. In addition, a large number of other people were included in the investigation’s scope. Among them are Arpita Mukherjee, Chandan Mondal, a recruiter for teaching positions, Kalyanmay Bhattacharya, Partha Chatterjee’s son-in-law, Dr SP Sinha, a consultant for the West Bengal Central School Service Commission, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, a former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, and Saumitra Sarkar, a former president of West-Bengal Central school service.

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