India's financial-crime investigation agency arrested a West Bengal government minister on Saturday for allegedly making money off recruitment for state-run schools, officials said.
Partha Chatterjee, who was education minister in the eastern state for more than five years, was accused of appointing hundreds of teachers and non-teaching staff for money and other forms of bribes, putting them in positions they were not qualified for or had they paid acquire, said an official of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary general, who holds three ministerial posts, was arrested at his home in the state capital, Kolkata, ED said.
"The minister has been charged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act," an ED official said.
He was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling in connection with the case and was later presented before a Kolkata court which remanded him to ED custody for two days.
Chatterjee's lawyer and family could not immediately be reached for comment.
The 69-year-old is one of the most trusted lieutenants of West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
The directorate said in a statement it had seized about 200 million rupees in cash from the house of actor-cum-model Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of Chatterjee, finding incriminating documents, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold from the premises of other government officials linked to the alleged scam.
The ED started the raids on Friday where it seized the cash. The raids were still underway there as of 6 pm on Saturday.
The TMC described the raids as a "ploy" by the federal BJP government to "harass" its political opponents. Denying any role to play in the issue, the BJP has claimed the CBI and ED are "progressing on right path" and that "more skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard".
Chatterjee’s arrest is a blow to West Bengal's ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) party. Its leader and other members are among the most vocal critics of Narendra Modi's federal government.
"The party is in no way connected to the unaccounted money recovered by the agency," said AITC spokesman Kunal Ghosh.
“We are keeping a close watch on the situation. We will come out with a statement at an appropriate time," he added.
The party claimed that Arpita has no links with it.
"The money recovered by ED has nothing to do with Trinamool. Those who are named in this investigation, it is their responsibility to answer the questions related to them or their lawyers," Ghosh tweeted.
The probe was ordered after some teachers reported alleged recruitment anomalies to the high court of the state, home to some of India's oldest and most prestigious educational institutions.
Apart from the Enforcement Directorate, or ED, the alleged scam is being investigated by Central Bureau of Investigation. While the ED is looking into the money trail in the scam, the CBI is investigating the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff and teachers in state-sponsored and aided schools.
West Bengal state assembly's Speaker Biman Banerjee said the ED must inform the speaker before arresting a member of the assembly. “The ED or CBI, while arresting any MP or MLA, has to inform the speaker of the Lok Sabha or assembly. This is the constitutional norm. But I have not received any communication from ED about Chatterjee’s arrest," he said.