• ED starts procedure to arrest Partha Chatterjee, reports anandabazar.com.
• Over Rs 21 crore have been seized so far from Arpita Mukherjee's residence, the ED said on Saturday, adding that the process of counting the cash is still on, reports anandabazar.com
• ED also seized gold jewellery worth Rs 50 lakh from Arpita Mukherjee's residence
• A doctor was summoned at Partha Chatterjee's residence on Saturday morning as the minister felt unwell. The Bengal minister requested the ED officials for a medical practitioner as the questioning in the SSC scam crossed 24 hours, reported anandabazar.com
• Cops surround Chatterjee's residence, reports anandabazar.com
• Security has been beefed up around minister's residence, reports anandabazar.com
• Minister only has tea-biscuits for dinner, documents seized from home, reports anandabazar.com
• New set of ED officials on its way to Partha Chatterjee's residence; grilling continues, reports anandabazar.com
• The money recovered by ED has nothing to do with Trinamul. Those who are named in this investigation, it is their responsibility to answer the questions related to them or their lawyers. Why campaign is going on with the name of the party, the party is watching. Will give a speech in due time, tweets TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has seized Rs 20 crore in cash after raids on the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of West Bengal Minister industry Partha Chatterjee, in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

Money seized from Arpita Mukherjee's home Twitter/@pooja_news

"The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam," it said in a statement.

The search teams are taking the assistance of bank officials for the counting of cash through counting machines.

More than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, the purpose and use of which is being ascertained, it said.

Apart from Chatterjee, it raided Minister of State for Education Paresh C Adhikari, MLA Manik Bhattacharya and others.

At least seven to eight ED personnel arrived at Chatterjee's Naktala residence here around 8:30 am, and carried out searches till 11 am with CRPF personnel keeping guard outside, the source said.

Another team of agency officials visited Adhikari's home at Mekhliganj in Coochbehar district and talked to his family members, he stated.

According to the ED source, officials had also carried out a simultaneous raid at the residence of the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Manik Bhattacharya, in the Jadavpur area of the city.

The CBI, as directed by the high court, is looking into the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam.

Chatterjee, currently industries and commerce minister, held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off. He was interrogated by the CBI twice, once on April 26 and then on May18.

Adhikari, the minister of state (MoS) for education, had also been grilled by the CBI with his daughter losing her job as school teacher. He told reporters he could not get in touch with his family over the phone.

"They did not intimate us about the visit to our house today. I am in Kolkata in connection with the July 21 Martyrs' Day rally of the TMC. Had I been around, I would have treated them to muri (puffed rice), he said.

The TMC, meanwhile, described the concerted raids as ploy by the BJP government at the Centre to harass political opponents.

"This raid by ED, a day after the spectacular Martyrs' Day rally that created ripples all over the country, is nothing but an attempt to harass and intimidate leaders of the TMC. The CBI has already interrogated them (ministers) as part of a court directive and they are cooperating. Now, the ED is being invoked only to discredit them. The money laundering issue is being invented by the BJP," transport minister Firhad Hakim said.

The BJP, however, maintained that the TMC aided large-scale anomalies in the recruitment process of teachers at primary, upper primary and secondary level since coming to power.

"TMC leaders and people close to them duped lakhs of qualified youths and handed over their jobs to ineligible ones. The CBI and ED are progressing on right path. More skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard. The BJP has no role to play in the issue," the saffron party's national vice-president, Dilip Ghosh, added.