WBSSC scam: ED files charge sheet against Partha, aide

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday filed its first charge sheet against former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam-linked money laundering case, saying assets worth more than Rs 100 crore have been seized.

The agency also said it has issued a provisional attachment order for seizing immovable assets and bank balances to the tune of Rs 48.22 crore, which it claimed were "beneficially owned" by the two.

The charge sheet was filed before a special court in Kolkata, under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), on the 58th day of the arrest of the two.

Chatterjee and Mukherjee were arrested by the federal agency on July 23 after raids were carried out against them in connection with its probe into the money trail in the school recruitment scam.

The 172-page charge sheet was filed before the PMLA court at the Bankshall Court here against eight entities - Chatterjee, Mukherjee and six other companies that were allegedly found to have been floated in connection with the case, ED counsel Abhijit Bhadra said.

According to the charge sheet, there are 43 witnesses in the case.

The documents attached with the charge sheet run into as many as 146,043 pages, Bhadra stated.

The ED earlier had seized Rs 49.80 crore in cash apart from jewellery and gold bars worth Rs 5.08 core after raids at flats owned by Chatterjee's alleged close aide Arpita Mukherjee.

As part of the attachment order about which the ED informed on Monday, it said 40 immovable assets such as a farmhouse, flats and "prime land" located in Kolkata worth a total of Rs 40.33 crore, apart from Rs 7.89 crore worth in deposits kept in 35 bank accounts were seized.

According to the agency, several of the attached properties were registered in the name of shell companies and people acting as "proxies" for Chatterjee.

The total value of the seized or attached assets in this case stands at Rs 103.10 crore, it said

The court allowed ED's prayer for further investigation as well as its plea to file a supplementary charge sheet at a later stage.

Claiming that the former minister is innocent, his counsel had earlier told the court that "nothing" was recovered from Chatterjee.

The ED has alleged that Chatterjee and Mukherjee were found to be involved in the commission of the offence of money laundering by indulging in a criminal conspiracy to give jobs to ineligible candidates.

The names of these candidates were allegedly recommended by the SSC to the West Bengal Board of School Education.

It has also been stated by the agency that Mukherjee's close association with family members of Chatterjee has been found in a company registered at an address owned by the former at Belghoria, on the northern outskirts of Kolkata, from where Rs 27.90 crore in cash was also seized.

In another company, APA Utility Services, the two accused were found to have equal 50 - 50 shareholdings. The agency counsel said that 31 LIC insurance policies of Mukherjee, in which the former minister is a nominee, have also been seized.

Chatterjee was relieved of his ministerial duties by the Mamata Banerjee government shortly after his arrest while the TMC, too, removed him from the posts he held in the party, including that of the secretary general. He held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off.

He is at present in the custody of the CBI for questioning in connection with the scam while Mukherjee is lodged in jail.