Kolkata, Aug 24 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Kolkata Zonal Office has filed the first supplementary charge sheet against former state minister Partha Chatterjee, his close associates Arpita Mukherjee, Kuntal Ghosh and others before the Special Court (PMLA) in Kolkata in connection with the SSC Group‑C and Group‑D staff recruitment scam in West Bengal.
A statement issued by the central investigation agency on Monday said the charge sheet has been filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in continuation of the earlier charge sheet filed in January 2025.
ED initiated an investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), ACB, Kolkata relating to large‑scale irregularities in the recruitment of Group‑C and Group‑D staff through the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC).
The statement said the scheduled offences pertain to criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Investigation under the PMLA revealed that the recruitment scam was perpetrated through manipulation of OMR scores, rank jumping, issuance of forged and back‑dated recommendation letters, illegal appointments after expiry of panels and appointment of undeserving candidates by circumventing prescribed recruitment procedures.
The ED said amounts ranging from approximately Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh were demanded from candidates for various posts, while amounts ranging from Rs 15 to 16 lakh for Group‑C posts and Rs 10 to 12 lakh for Group‑D posts were collected from undeserving candidates. Prasanna Kumar Roy acted as a principal middleman and, along with his associates, facilitated collection and routing of the proceeds of crime.
The investigation has quantified the proceeds of crime in the Group‑C and Group‑D recruitment scam to the tune of at least Rs 630.40 crore. The quantification is based on the number of illegal appointments and the amounts collected from candidates. The investigation has also established that the actual proceeds of crime may be higher, as the scam involved other modes of illegal recruitment including rank jumping, out‑of‑panel appointments, appointments after expiry of panels and manipulation through RTI/reevaluation mechanisms.
Investigation further revealed that the proceeds of crime generated through illegal recruitment were concealed, possessed, acquired, used and projected as untainted property through a network of associates, proxies and shell/dummy entities.
Multiple immovable properties were acquired through entities linked to the accused persons and their associates using funds derived from the recruitment scam. ED has so far attached properties amounting to approximately Rs 247.35 crore in the SSC Group‑C and Group‑D recruitment scam. ED has attached proceeds of crime amounting to more than Rs 702 crore in recruitment scam cases related to SSC and Primary Teachers.
—
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.
