After 27 hours of marathon interrogation, Trinamool Congress Minister and party secretary general Partha Chatterjee was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday, July 23, morning in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) teacher's recruitment scam.
The central agency is looking into money laundering aspect of the scam under section 50 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Sources in the agency revealed that he was arrested due to ‘inconsistency’ in his statements.
Chatterjee, who was former state education minister, was taken to ESI Joka hospital for a medical checkup before he was produced before the court today.
The agency sleuths started the interrogation at the residence of the minister at 8 AM on Friday, July 22.
The central agency also detained his said close aide, Arpita Mukherjee. According to reports, Rs 20 crore in cash was seized from her place, but the sources revealed the amoun is higher and likely to increase.
"We seized Rs 21 crore 22 lakh in cash and the amount is likely to increase. Gold ornaments worth rupees 50 lakhs were recovered from her apartment,” said ED sources.
Arpita was a small time actor in Tamil, Bengali and Oriya film industries and was a brand ambassador of Partha Chaterjee's durga puja at Naktala.
The opposition claimed that arrest of Chatterjee is ‘tip of the iceberg’ and also that more heavyweights ‘scam’ will also come to light.
BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said, “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at the July 21 rally that country and people are more important than party but now we can see the corrupt face of TMC leaders. Though TMC says central agencies are being used by the Central government out of jealousy, but those who have duped people should be punished.”
BJP leader and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia speaking about the scam said, "This is evidence of the fact that how people's money is being sacrificed for corruption in Bengal. People will get to completely know about it, I am confident."
