New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday arrested Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya in link to the West Bengal teachers recruitment scam, ANI reported, citing sources.
He was arrested today after being questioned overnight by ED officials in connection with the teachers' recruitment scam, ANI reported citing sources
Bhattacharya, the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education will be produced before the court today. Bhattacharya represents the Palashipara assembly constituency. ED had earlier summoned Bhattacharya.
Notably, the Supreme Court on September 30 extended the interim protection granted to Bhattacharya in link with the alleged irregularities in primary teachers' appointments till further orders. The court had said that interim protection granted to Manik Bhattacharya shall continue till further order. The court had directed him to cooperate with the investigation agency.
Earlier ED had also arrested then West Bengal Industries Minister and former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in the SSC (School Service Commission) scam.
The probe agency had recovered cash worth about Rs 50 crore, foreign currency, jewellery, and gold biscuits in connection with its raids into the scam.
Chatterjee was the education minister from 2014 to 2021 in the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal. Following his arrest, he was removed as a minister and suspended from the Trinamool Congress.
A special court in Kolkata had extended Chatterjee’s judicial custody along with his close associate, Arpita Mukherjee, till September 14 in link with the scam.
Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation had also arrested the former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, for his alleged involvement in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam case.
(With Inputs from ANI)