WB teachers' recruitment 'scam': ED attaches assets of expelled TMC workers

Assets worth more than Rs 15 crore of expelled TMC youth wing leaders Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee and another person have been attached in connection with a money laundering probe into the alleged West Bengal school teachers' recruitment scam, the ED said on Friday.

The attached properties are in the form of bank accounts, shares, mutual funds, residential flats and land, the agency said in a statement. The total value of the provisionally attached assets, seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, is Rs 15.03 crore.

They belong to accused persons Ghosh, Banerjee and Ayan Sil who "acted as agents in the illegal collection of money from aspiring candidates for the posts of primary teacher", it alleged. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier arrested the three and Sil is an alleged associate of Banerjee.

Former TMC leader and West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, his alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee, TMC MLA and former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya and Sujay Krishna Bhadra, considered to be close to the TMC top brass have also been arrested in the case.

Chatterjee was also suspended by the TMC after his arrest by the ED.

Two more accused -- Souvik Bhattacharya and Satarupa Bhattacharya -- were sent to judicial custody by a special PMLA court in Kolkata after they appeared before it following the filing of a chargesheet (prosecution complaint) by the agency against them.

A total of four charge sheets have been filed by the ED in the case till now while the total seizure and attachment of assets stands at Rs 126.70 crore.