Bengal school job scam: CBI files charge sheet naming Partha Chatterjee

Kolkata : The Central Bureau of Investigation, on Friday, filed a charge sheet in the multi-crore cash-for-job case in West Bengal, naming its former Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee.

CBI’s chargesheet in the matter has been filed at a time when already the process of charge framing in the Enforcement Directorate (ED)-registered case in the alleged school job scam is underway at a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata.

Chatterjee has also been named by ED in its charge sheet as a prime accused in the case.

He was arrested in July 2022 by ED after the latter seized a huge quantity of cash and gold from the twin residences of Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee.

Again in October this year, CBI had shown Chatterjee as arrested in the case. On Friday, the CBI submitted a 40-page charge sheet in the matter where the Central agency has claimed that the former state minister, through his close associates, collected cash from over 1,000 individuals who unethically got school jobs by paying money.

Chatterjee and nine others have already filed petitions seeking relief from the ED-registered case. The process of charge framing at the special court is being carried out in the midst of yearend court holidays.

In its fifth and last supplementary chargesheet filed by ED recently, it has been claimed that Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee had been the greatest beneficiaries in the school job scam. As per the chargesheet, of the total amount of Rs 151.26 crore confiscated by ED so far, the combined share of proceeds of Chatterjee and Mukherjee is Rs 103.78 crore.

The confiscation is in terms of cash and gold seized and immovable property attached.

Subsequent charge sheets filed by ED in the school-job case have named a total of 53, out of whom 29 are individuals and the remaining 24 are corporate entities and trusts. These trusts were mainly used to divert the scam proceeds in the matter under the masquerade of donations.

One such trust, as mentioned by ED in the records, is that of Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, which is named after the deceased wife of Partha Chatterjee. Besides Chatterjee, his son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharya has also been shown as an accused in the case.