Partha Chatterjee arrest: TMC leadership should be probed for corruption, says BJP

The saffron party took exception to TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's campaign against the central investigative agencies and said it has been a case of “chor machaye shor (thief making noise)”.

Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee arrives to appear before the CBI for questioning in connection to the alleged irregularities in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment in the state. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

On a day when senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested in an alleged teacher recruitment scam, the BJP sought questioning of the top leadership of the party saying West Bengal’s ruling party had accumulated huge amounts of money over the years through corruption.

The saffron party took exception to TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s campaign against the central investigative agencies and said it has been a case of “chor machaye shor (thief making noise)”. “A raid by the ED has unearthed Rs 21 crore cash from a close associate of a minister. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had appreciated the minister for his good work and today we came to know of the good work she was referring to,” Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar told reporters at a press conference in the BJP headquarters.

He said over Rs 1-lakh crore of illegal assets have been brought back into the mainstream by the ED and other investigative agencies. “We want to expose the hypocrisy of the leaders who do their very best to intimidate investigative agencies and derail the process of the investigation,” Chandrasekhar said.

BJP MP and former West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh alleged that TMC leaders have accumulated huge wealth over the years, including from alleged corruption in the recruitment for various posts, adding that nobody will believe that party’s “high command” — an apparent reference to Mamata Banerjee — was not aware of this. “Based on the evidence unearthed so far, the top leadership should be questioned,” Ghosh said without naming anyone.

Also read | Mamata close aide Partha Chatterjee, Bengal minister who is in eye of SSC scam storm

West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday in connection with its investigation into the alleged school jobs scam. The federal probe agency also detained Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose premises cash totalling Rs 21 crore was seized. The BJP leaders said the mountain of cash seized from Mukherjee’s place has exposed the TMC’s corruption.

Chandrasekhar highlighted the cases of alleged corruption involving leaders from the BJP’s rival parties in a number of states, including Jharkhand, Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka, and claimed that their parties have been politicising the issue to brush their misdeeds under the carpet.

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