ED conducts raids at residences of Bengal Ministers, Education department officials
The Hindu
ED said ₹20 crore were recovered from the residence of one of those whose residential premises was searched by the agency during the day.
A team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Friday conducted raids at several places, including the residence of West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee and Minister of State for Education Paresh Chandra Adhikary, in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment carried out by State School Education department.
In a press statement later in the day, ED said that ₹20 crore were recovered from the residence of one of those whose residential premises was searched by the agency during the day.
“During the course of searches, the ED has recovered huge cash amounting to approximately ₹20 crores from the residential premises of Arpita Mukherjee, who is close associate of Mr. Partha Chatterjee. The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of said SSC Scam. The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines,” the statement added.
The raids by the ED came a month after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered cases in the alleged recruitment scam on the instruction of the Calcutta High Court.
The ED officials reached the south Kolkata residence of Mr. Chatterjee, who is also the secretary general of Trinamool Congress, at 8 a.m. on Friday. The search continued till late in the evening. Mr. Chatterjee was the Minister of State for Education when the alleged irregularities occurred. The officials were accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who stood guard at his residence.
Another ED team conducted a search at the home of Mr. Adhikary in Coochbehar district.