The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday provisionally attached properties worth Rs 48.22 crore “beneficially owned” by erstwhile West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and close associate Arpita Mukherjee under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the alleged SSC recruitment scam case. The ED also filed a chargesheet against Chatterjee and Mukherjee on Monday, nearly two months after their arrest.
Out of the assets confiscated by the central probing agency, 40 immovable assets worth Rs 40.33 crore and Rs 7.89 crore in 35 bank accounts were seized by the ED. The immovable assets include apartments, a farmhouse, a plot of land in a posh area in Kolkata and bank balance, the ED stated.
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The move against Chatterjee and his aide comes on a day when the ED submitted the chargesheet before Kolkata’s Bankshall court. So far, the agency has seized at least Rs 103 crore worth properties belonging to both Chatterjee and Mukherjee.
Chatterjee is currently under the custody of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after a Kolkata court sent the former Bengal minister to CBI remand till September 21. Chatterjee was the state’s education minister in 2019, when teaching jobs were allegedly given to individuals in exchange for money at the cost of deserving candidates.
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The probing agency has uncovered crime proceeds worth crores during the course of its investigation. The ED has recovered Rs 50 crore and several gold jewelries from two residential flats belonging to Mukherjee in Kolkata’s Tollygunge and Belgharia.
Chatterjee was arrested by ED on July 23. While interrogating the former state minister, ED officials had found Rs 22 crore after raiding Mukherjee’s flat in Tollygunge, following which she was arrested.