The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is on the lookout for properties belonging to relatives and close aides of arrested minister Partha Chatterjee in a bid to track the money trail in alleged irregularities in recruitments in government-aided schools.
The attempt to trace the money trail began after Chatterjee’s arrest by ED early on Saturday. On Friday, a team of five ED officials went to Pingla in West Midnapore and
interrogated a close relative of Chatterjee’s son-in-law Kalyanmoy Bhattacharyya who recently opened a new private school.
The five-member ED team interrogated Krishna Chandra Adhikari, Kalyanmoy’s maternal uncle, for 12 hours to gather details of the school from him.
Sources said Adhikari’s three-acre plot, used to build BCM International School, was taken by the minister’s son-in-law on lease and was set up in 2020 in the memory of Chatterjee’s wife Babli.
“The land is worth Rs 45 crore and Adhikari bought it in 2018 from local farmers with the assurance of setting up an agro-industry there. However, a school was set up and minister Partha Chatterjee visited it multiple times,” said Shakti Bhanja, a villager.
After the ED raids, many residents of the area questioned the source of the money to purchase the plot. They pointed out that Adhikari is a priest by profession.
Adhikari, however, said the ED did not ask him any questions. “They did not ask any questions. They took away a few files,” he said.
Sources said the sleuths were also gathering information on Chatterjee’s links with a state university professor who had multiple properties in her name.
BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said that the professor, who is apparently well connected in Bangladesh, was a beneficiary of ill-gotten wealth and owned multiple properties in Santiniketan.
“She was very influential in the education department’s affairs and instrumental in transfers and appointments,” he said.
At least seven houses in Santiniketan are now under the ED’s scanner for reportedly belonging to Chatterjee’s relatives and the varsity teacher.
(Additional reporting by Abhijeet Chatterjee in Durgapur)