The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Partha Chatterjee, the virtual No. 2 in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, from his home around 2am on Saturday after searching the premises and questioning him for over 19 hours in connection with alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and other staff to government-aided schools.

Chatterjee emerged from his house in Naktala on the southern fringes of Calcutta around 10am on Saturday, escorted by ED officials. Around 5.30pm, a judge at the metropolitan magistrate’s court sent Chatterjee to two days’ ED custody.

On Saturday evening, the ED arrested Arpita Mukherjee, from whose house the central agency is said to have seized over Rs 21 crore and jewellery. Officers, who described Arpita as a close associate of Chatterjee, spent over 24 hours in her flat before her formal arrest. The money was packed into trunks and taken away on a truck.

Chatterjee was taken to SSKM Hospital on Saturday evening after he complained of discomfort in the chest.

Doctors at SSKM initially checked him at the emergency ward and subsequently suggested that he be admitted for further monitoring.

Sources in the ED said that two officials would remain posted outside the cabin along with CRPF personnel throughout Chatterjee’s SSKM stay.

The Trinamul Congress showed signs of distancing itself from Chatterjee and expressed full faith in the judiciary.

Chatterjee is the first Trinamul leader to be arrested in connection with the probe into school recruitments. Chatterjee, who was the education minister when the recruitments took place, is now the state’s minister for commerce and industries, and holds a slew of other portfolios.

The CBI questioned Chatterjee on May 18. While the CBI is probing alleged criminality in the recruitment process, the ED is investigating the alleged transaction of money during the process.

Sources in the ED said Chatterjee had evaded questions about alleged money transactions during the recruitment of primary school teachers and pleaded ignorance about funds reaching him from different corners of the state through agents.

One alleged agent, Chandan Mondal alias Ranjan, is among 14 people whom the ED has questioned. His premises were searched on Friday in Bagda, North 24-Parganas.

“There are different money trails involving the bank accounts of some of his (Chatterjee’s) relatives, which did not match what he was claiming. When asked to explain, he remained evasive,” an officer said.

“He even refused to admit his proximity to Arpita Mukherjee.”

Sources said the arrest memo had been drawn up close to the break of dawn when another team of officers joined the one questioning Chatterjee at his residence. The security ring of CRPF personnel was also beefed up.

The minister refused to sign the memo of arrest initially, leading to a delay, officers said.

After leaving Naktala, the convoy toured various parts of the city along EM Bypass for almost an hour before finally reaching ESI Hospital in Joka where the mandatory post-arrest medical tests were conducted.

Some speculated that the ED had picked the distant ESI Hospital because it was a central government-run institution.

Outside the hospital, Chatterjee told reporters that he could not get through to chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

He was brought to Bankshall Court late in the afternoon amid tight security.

Lawyers representing the central investigating agency told the court that they had recovered several property-related documents from the minister’s house and claimed they had the records of phone conversations between Chatterjee and Arpita.

It was necessary to question the minister in custody to find out more about the several crores allegedly recovered from Arpita’s possession, the lawyers said.

They reminded the court that former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram had been denied bail in 2019, with his sphere of influence in mind.

Chatterjee’s lawyers contended that the CBI was primarily investigating the case and not the ED and that the minister be granted bail considering his health. “He has started to break down and we have appealed to the court and the ED to take care of his health,” said one of the lawyers.