Trinamool suspends Mr Chatterjee
Trinamool suspends Mr Chatterjee
five days later He was arrested in the West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment scamThe Trinamool Congress on Thursday relieved Partha Chatterjee of his ministerial post and suspended him from the party.
A notification from the state government said Mr Chatterjee has been relieved from the post of minister in charge of four departments with immediate effect. “All Departments With Partha Das” [Partha Chatterjee] Coming to me.. cabinet reshuffle to take place [for the portfolios to be allocated to others],” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said. The portfolios Mr Chatterjee was in charge of included Industry and Commerce and Parliamentary Affairs.
Later in the day the Trinamool leadership held a meeting and suspended Mr Chatterjee from the party and removed him from the posts of general secretary and national vice-president.
Ms Banerjee was under increasing pressure to take action against the Trinamool heavyweight ever since her arrest on July 23. The 69-year-old has been one of the tallest leaders of the party after the chief minister and his nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Earlier in the day, senior party leaders including spokesperson Kunal Ghosh demanded action against the Trinamool heavyweight. The Trinamool leadership has been trying to distance itself from Mr Chatterjee after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids and seizure of cash.
On Wednesday evening, the ED seized Rs 28 crore in cash from one of the residences of former minister’s aide Arpita Mukherjee. This was the second instance when cash was recovered from a property of Ms. Mukherjee. On July 22, cash and jewelery worth Rs 21.90 crore were seized from Ms Mukherjee’s residence, which led to her arrest. So far, the amount of cash and jewelery seized from two places has crossed 50 crores. This is the biggest seizure of cash in Kolkata in recent times.
The combo image shows cash and jewelery recovered by ED officials from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee. , photo credit: PTI
“All the members of the Disciplinary Committee unanimously decided that he” [Mr. Partha Chatterjee] He should be suspended from the party pending investigation. Mr Banerjee emphasized the need for a time-bound probe in the matter and said, “we all want to know what is the source of the money recovered”. Mr Banerjee said circumstantial evidence suggests that he (Mr Chatterjee) may have been involved and the Trinamool Congress has given benefit of doubt to the people of the state by taking action against him in the matter. “The onus is on him. The onus is on him to prove that the money recovered is not from proceeds of crime,” the TMC leader said.
“Imaginatively, if this Partha Chatterjee joins the BJP after a few months or a few years, he will be wiped out overnight,” Mr Banerjee said. He reiterated what the party president had said that action would be taken against anyone responsible for wrongdoing in TMC, whether he is the general secretary of the party.
Mr Chatterjee and Ms Mukherjee were arrested by the ED on June 23 following the first raid and recovery of cash. Both the former minister and his aides were in ED custody till August 3 in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam, where jobs were allegedly given for profit of money. Mr Chatterjee was the Minister of Education Department from 2014 to 2021.
The ED continued to raid various places, especially the properties of Ms. Mukherjee. BJP and Left parties took to the streets to protest against the recruitment scam. Mr Banerjee has also called on job seekers who have uncovered irregularities in the recruitment and approached the Calcutta High Court on the matter. The High Court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe several such allegations and the ED is looking into the money laundering aspect in the scam.