West Bengal SSC scam: Mamata’s Man Friday Partha Chatterjee arrested by ED

New Delhi: Mamata Banerjee’s Man Friday and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday, July 23, after being questioned for around 26 hours in connection with an alleged scam in the recruitment of teachers in state-run schools.

Chatterjee was taken to the ED’s office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, and will be produced in court later in the day. He allegedly did not cooperate with ED officials who had been questioning him since Friday morning.

The scam pertained to the recruitment of Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ staff, assistant teachers of classes 11 and 12 and primary teachers. ED had recovered Rs 20 crore in cash from one of the properties of Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee in south Kolkata. Mukherjee was also detained.

Chatterjee was the state education minister when the scam occurred. The ED was probing the money laundering aspect based on an FIR by the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) that was filed following orders of the Calcutta High Court.