Written by Jigisha Seal

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Saturday raided the residence of former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in Kolkata in connection with the investigation into the government teacher recruitment scam.

ED officials are also conducting a simultaneous search at an office linked to Prasanna Kumar Roy, another accused, who is currently in jail.

According to a statement issued by ED, Chatterjee had been summoned three times to appear before the Investigating Officer in connection with the SSC scam but failed to appear, citing health complications. “ED has multiple cases against him with respect to recruitment of Primary Teachers, SSC Assistant Teachers, and SSC Group C and D staff,” a statement from ED said.

Chatterjee was arrested by the ED on July 23, 2022, on charges of being involved in the multi-crore school jobs scam that had taken place during his tenure as state education minister. At the time of his arrest, he was serving as the state’s industries minister.

During searches in 2022, the ED had recovered over Rs 50 crore from his associate Arpita Mukherjee’s flat. Following this, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) removed him from official positions and suspended him from the party for six years. After securing bail in all the cases against him, Chatterjee was released from jail last year on November 11.

Since his release, he has been residing at his Naktala residence in South Kolkata and has remained politically uninvolved. He has also not been given a ticket by the TMC for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.

In recent days, the ED has intensified its probe into multiple corruption cases across West Bengal. On Saturday, TMC MLAs Sujit Bose and Rathin Ghosh were summoned before the ED. While Bose did not appear personally, his son Samudra Bose had attended the agency’s office on his behalf.

(Jigisha Seal is an intern with The Indian Express)