ED raids six places linked to 'middlemen' in West Bengal teacher recruitment scam

The raids are underway since Friday morning as part of the ED's follow-up searches after the arrest of main middleman Prassana Kumar Roy, a close aide of former education minister Partha Chatterjee, who is languishing in judicial custody, sources privy to the development, told ANI.

The places searched by the agency sleuths included the Patharghata area. Among the places searched included a para teacher, Abdul Amin, at the Mazar Sharif intersection in Patharghata, Newtown, said the sources.

It is alleged that Abdul Amin is close to former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. He is a para teacher at the Patharghata High School.

The fresh raids are conducted at the residences of the "middlemen" linked to the case based on a tip-off from the persons arrested earlier in the case.

In January this year, the ED also conducted raids at nearly seven places in West Bengal as part of tracing the money trail in the teacher recruitment scam.

The federal agency then raided Prasanna Roy's two luxurious bungalows at New Town's Ideal Villas in West Bengal. Roy. A relative of Partha Chatterjee, was earlier arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation and later granted bail by the Supreme Court.

Former Trinamool Congress minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested on July 23, 2022, after Rs 21 crore in cash and jewellery worth above Rs 1 crore was allegedly recovered from the Kolkata residence of his close aide, Arpita Mukherjee.

ED has alleged that several documents and bank details are seized from the possession of various suspects showing that Partha Chatterjee took help to invest money gained from the teacher recruitment scam in the state. (ANI)