SSC recruitment scam: BJP shares video of WB CM Mamata 'praising' Partha Chatterjee's aide

In an embarrassment for TMC, BJP shared an old video of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee praising Minister Partha Chatterjee's aide Arpita Mukherjee who was raided by the ED in connection with the SSC recruitment scam. On Friday, the central agency recovered Rs.20 crore in cash from Mukherjee's residential premises. Posting an undated video of a function at the Naktala Udayan Sangha in Kolkata, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya alleged that the West Bengal CM knew Mukherjee and the work that she was doing.

Taking a veiled swipe at the TMC supremo, he contended that Chatterjee allegedly committed the scam at the behest of someone else. Meanwhile, West Bengal's Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari also commented, "'Guilty by Association' - A legal phenomenon used to describe when an individual is guilty of committing a crime through knowing someone else. Just saying. Yeh toh bas trailer hai, picture abhi baki hai". 

The SSC recruitment scam

While the CBI had been looking into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of non-teaching staff (Group C & D), assistant teachers (Class IX-XII) and primary school teachers, the ED is probing the money laundering aspect. Partha Chatterjee was the Education Minister when this scam was allegedly pulled off. He has already been interrogated by the CBI on April 26 and May 18. A day earlier, the ED carried out simultaneous raids at various premises linked to the SSC recruitment scam. In a statement, it alleged that the amount recovered from Arpita Mukherjee's house might be proceeds of crime.

The ED stated, "The search team is taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through cash counting machines. A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Ms. Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained. Further, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam."

Here are some of the persons raided by the ED:

• Partha Chatterjee, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Parliamentary Affairs, Electronics & IT
• Paresh Adhikary, Minister of State for Education
• Manik Bhattacharya, MLA, and ex-president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education
• Arpita Mukherjee
• SP Sinha, advisor of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission
• Kalyanmoy Ganguly, ex-president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education
• Saumitra Sarkar, ex-president of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission
• Alok Kumar Sarkar, Deputy Director of the School Education Department