West Bengal SSC scam: ED attaches properties worth Rs 48.22 crore belonging to Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday informed that it has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 48.22 crore belonging to suspended TMC leader Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in the teacher's recruitment scam in West Bengal. The central agency has attached 40 immovable assets valued at Rs 40.33 crore and 35 bank accounts having a balance of Rs 7.89 crore.

The attached properties include flats, a farmhouse, a bank balance, and prime land in the city of Kolkata. "The attached properties are found to be beneficially owned by Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee," the ED said, which arrested the duo in July, said.

A number of the attached properties were kept in the name of dummy companies and firms and persons acting as a proxy for Partha Chatterjee, the ED said.

Chatterjee and Mukherjee were arrested after a huge amount of cash was found at the latter's residence during a search operation by the ED. The alleged teacher recruitment scam took place when Mukherjee was the state education minister. He was later sacked as a minister and suspended from the party, TMC.

During the raids, the probe agency recovered a total of Rs 49.80 crore and gold & jewellery valued at more than Rs 5.08 crore from two premises. The searches were conducted on 22 and 27 July. With recent seizure, the total attachment in the case now stands at Rs 103.10 crore.

The ED began the probe after the Calcutta High Court asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the alleged irregularities in the recruitment scam.