“I don’t know”, “I can’t say” and “I can’t remember” – till Monday evening, these were the three standard responses of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 23, in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam.
According to a group of investigating officers, the minister has been quizzed repeatedly on the school jobs scam since Friday. However, for the first time on Tuesday, Chatterjee said he wanted to cooperate with the ED officials, according to a source in the investigation agency.
The minister was taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, on Monday morning and was brought back to Kolkata on Tuesday morning. After some rest, he “promised” to give “correct” answers to all the questions on time, ED sources claimed.
When asked who gave the recommendations for job appointments, the minister’s reply was that “recommendations came from all levels”, said the source.
However, Chatterjee has not revealed any names yet.
CHANGE OF HEART?
According to a section of officials, Chatterjee may have felt that his party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), although hadn’t sidelined him completely, hadn’t supported him fully either.
Moreover, Chatterjee will be in ED custody till August 3. Feeling that he may be “blamed entirely for such a big scandal”, Chatterjee may have changed his mind, said the source.
#Breaking | The ED will be conducting fresh raids/search ops in Kolkata today in the SSC scam case. Five separate teams have left the agency’s Salt Lake office for the raids.#BengalSSCScam @Sougata_Mukh shares details.
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— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 27, 2022
On Wednesday, the investigators questioned Chatterjee with a break of one hour in the afternoon and evening. Several sofas were placed together around him to corner him in the conference room, said the source.
When asked about corruption in education, his first reply was, “Not everything can be taken care of.”
Later, he said, “Something may have happened. When it comes to light later, it is understood that corruption has taken place.”
THE ED SEARCHES
Along with the Central forces, the ED on Wednesday morning started searches at flats and offices of Arpita Mukherjee, a “close aide” of Chatterjee.
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In the morning, ED officials searched Mukherjee’s flat in Belgharia. They also went to the office of an entertainment company in Kasba Rajdanga.
The ED claimed that she was the director of the organisation.
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