West Bengal teacher recruitment scam; ED officials raid residences of two ministers

Kolkata: A team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided residences of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari on Friday as part of its probe into a teacher recruitment scam, a source in the agency said. At least seven to eight ED personnel arrived at Chatterjee's Naktala residence here around 8:30 am, and carried out searches till 11 am with CRPF personnel keeping guard outside, the source said.

Another team of agency officials visited Adhikari’s home at Mekhliganj in Coochbehar district and talked to his family members, he stated.

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According to the ED source, officials had also carried out a simultaneous raid at the residence of former chairman of West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Manik Bhattacharya, in Jadavpur area of the city.

The CBI had been looking into the alleged irregularities committed in recruitment of Group-C, D staff and teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission, as directed by the high court, and the ED was tracking the money trail in the scam.

Chatterjee, currently industries and commerce minister, held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off. He was interrogated by the CBI twice, once on April 26 and then on May 18.

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Adhikari, the minister of state (MoS) for education, had also been grilled by the CBI with his daughter lost her job of school teacher. He told reporters he could not get in touch with his family over phone.

"They did not intimate us about their visit to our house today. I am in Kolkata in connection with July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally of the TMC. Had I been around I would have treated them to muri (puffed rice),” he said.