KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has found 31 certificates issued by an insurance company in the name of Arpita Mukherjee, with former minister Partha Chatterjee being the nominee in all the documents, according to sources.
The ED has described the insurance documents as clinching evidence to prove that the proceeds of the crime of the alleged scam in recruitment were invested in the name of Arpita with clear involvement of Chatterjee.
“The insurance documents are clear evidence that will prove that Chatterjee parked the proceeds of the crime through Arpita. The model and actor has been cooperating with us during interrogation. However, Chatterjee isn’t. He is ducking most of the questions claiming his innocence or he has no knowledge or he cannot recall,” according to an ED official.
The documents that the central agency has come across during the investigation showed Chatterjee and Arpita were in touch since 2012.
“Many properties were purchased in the name of both Chatterjee and Arpita, but later registered in the name of the woman only,” said the official.
Citing an example, the official said a piece of land was purchased in Santiniketan in the name of the former Trinamool Congress minister and his close aide in 2012. “But the last mutation records of the property show it was in the name of Arpita only. The ED carried out a search operation in the Santiniketan property on Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Central agency sleuths raided an apartment in Panditia Road in Kolkata. Chatterjee and Arpita were arrested on July 23 after a marathon interrogation and recovery of cash Rs 21.9 crore, gold and diamond jewellery and foreign currencies from her apartment in connection with the alleged recruitment scam.
The ED carried out search at her second apartment and found cash Rs 27.9 crore along with jewellery. Both Chatterjee and Arpita will be produced in court on Friday.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee who is in New Delhi and is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday is unlikely to address the media following the developments in the ED investigation.
Insurance documents clinching evidence: ED
The ED has described the insurance documents as clinching evidence to prove that the proceeds of the crime of the alleged scam in recruitment were invested in the name of Arpita Mukherjee with the clear involvement of Partha Chatterjee
Bengal primary teachers demand transparency in the recruitment process
Several primary teachers' bodies in West Bengal Thursday demanded transparency in the recruitment process in the wake of the recent school jobs scam and probes by central agencies.
State Education Minister Bratya Basu has left out the recruitment of teachers at the primary level while making an announcement about starting the process of recruiting 21,000 teachers in upper primary, secondary and higher secondary schools within a stipulated time, they said.
The secretary of Usthi United Primary Teachers' Welfare Association Pritha Biswas said the entire process of teachers' recruitment has come under scrutiny.
"We want transparency in the entire process which is an important thing in the wake of recent scams and probe by central agencies at the behest of Calcutta High Court and the arrest of a former education minister (Partha Chatterjee)," he said.
Basu had informed about the recruitment of 21,000 teachers in upper primary, secondary and higher secondary levels within a stipulated time, possibly by Durga Puja.
Upper primary recruitment is a vital thing as many primary schools have been upgraded to upper primary levels and many primary schools have also applied for upper primary levels, Biswas added.
"The anomalies in the recruitment of primary teachers is now common knowledge. Successful candidates of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) are demonstrating on the roads and the government has apparently no clear-cut plan about how to end the impasse. In 2019, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had met the agitating candidates and promised to look into the issue but nothing came out of it," general secretary of Bengal Primary Teachers Association Ananda Handa told PTI.
Banerjee, he said, had then assured that 16,000 primary teacher jobs would be filled up, but that did not happen.
The education minister had sidestepped the issue of recruiting 31,000 primary teachers which had been lying unfulfilled since the 2014 TET, he claimed.
"We want a categorical statement from him," Handa added.
The spokesperson of Paschim Bango Sikshak Samity, Nabakumar Karmakar said the education minister did not say anything about recruitment of primary teachers which has become a contentious issue.
It is not clear how the state will initiate the process of filling up 21,000 vacant teacher posts at upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary levels in three months' time as the education minister promised to do so by Durga Puja, he said.
"Considering it is a mammoth exercise and in view of the ongoing court-monitored investigation into the SSC recruitment, even if the state decides to solely concentrate on fresh recruitments at those levels the feasibility of it remains to be seen," he said.
The education minister had said on Monday that the state will start the recruitment process of 21,000 teachers at upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary levels within a stipulated time, possibly by Durga Puja.
"We are treating the issue with a humane approach conforming to legal provisions," he had said after a meeting with officials of West Bengal School Service Commission, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and West Bengal Primary Education Board.
(With PTI Inputs)