West Bengal Governor grants sanction to ED for prosecution of ex-Education Minister Partha Chatterjee

NEW DELHI: West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has granted sanction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in a money laundering case related to the recruitment of primary teachers in state-run schools, a Raj Bhavan official said on Thursday.

The governor had earlier granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chatterjee, who is a Trinamool Congress MLA from Behala Paschim assembly constituency, in a case relating to irregularities in secondary school job recruitment. Besides Chatterjee, Bose also granted sanction to the ED to prosecute Manik Bhattacharya, the then president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, in the case relating to alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary school teachers, the official said.

The Calcutta High Court had in December refused bail to Chatterjee, who held the education portfolio from 2011 to 2021, in a school jobs case pertaining to recruitment in secondary schools in the state. Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in 2022 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore primary teacher recruitment scam.