Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 22: As part of its investigation into a teacher recruitment fraud, a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigators raided the homes of Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Paresh Adhikari on Friday.
According to the source, at least seven to eight ED employees arrived at Chatterjee’s Naktala home in Kolkata around 8:30 am and conducted searches there until 11 am while CRPF members stood to watch outside.
He claimed that the second team of agency representatives went to Adhikari’s residence in Mekhliganj, Coochbehar district, and spoke with his relatives.
The ED source said that officers also conducted a simultaneous search of Manik Bhattacharya’s home in the Jadavpur neighbourhood of the city, the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.
In accordance with a high court order, the CBI had been investigating alleged anomalies in the recruitment of Group-C and Group-D staff and teachers in government-sponsored and -aided institutions, while the ED was following the money trail in the fraud.
When the alleged scam was carried out, Chatterjee, who is presently the minister of industry and commerce, was in charge of education. The CBI questioned him twice, once on April 26 and again on May 18.
The CBI had questioned Adhikari, the minister of state (MoS) for education, over his daughter’s dismissal from her position as a teacher. He told the media that he was unable to reach his family by phone.
