• By Kamal Kumar
  • Tue, 01 Oct 2024 11:29 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the teacher recruitment scam. His arrest came eight months after the central agency named him in four chargesheets it filed in relation to four separate cases linked to the bribe-for-job scam and named Partha as the key accused in all of them.

The development came hours after the Supreme Court sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Chatterjee's bail plea in the case. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan reportedly asked the probe agency to file a reply on the bail plea of the former Bengal Minister.

Partha Arrested By ED In 2022

Partha Chatterjee was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2022 after the agency alleged that he took bribes to provide West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) teaching jobs.

The agency had recovered cash amounting to over 21 crores from the house of one of his associates Arpita Mukherjee. In the famous raid, over 20 mobile phones were also recovered from her house.

The ED alleged that the seized cash was suspected to be proceeds from the School Service Commission case. The ED further stated that the search team enlisted assistance from bank officials to count the cash using machines.

The confiscated cash was allegedly the proceeds of crime hoarded by Chatterjee, the ED had alleged, adding that it took bank officials' help to count the notes.

TMC later suspended Chatterjee from the party and removed him from all the posts.

“There will be zero tolerance for corruption. The investigating agency must complete the probe within the time limit. Even in the Sarada case nothing happened, it's just lingering. There should be a time-bound investigation," TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had said.