Bengal SSC scam: TMC's Kunal Ghosh seeks 'immediate' removal of Partha Chatterjee from ministry, all party posts

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress General Secretary Kunal Ghosh has become the first MP of the party to seek "immediate" removal of arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee from the ministry as well as all the party posts for his alleged involvement in the school jobs scam or Bengal SSC scam.

In a post on Twitter, Ghosh, who also is the spokesperson of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, said that if his statement, seeking expelling Chatterjee, is considered wrong, then the party can remove him from all posts.

"Partha Chatterjee should be removed from ministry and all party posts immediately. He should be expelled. If this statement considered wrong, party has every right to remove me from all posts. I shall continue as a soldier of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)," Ghosh said in a tweet.

On Wednesday, the TMC West Bengal General Secretary said that the recovery of crores in cash, gold bars, dollars from Partha Chatterjee's close aide Arpita Mukherjee's house has brought "disgrace" to the party and "shame to all" party members.

Ghosh's statement comes of the day when the Enforcement Directorate, on Thursday, recovered about Rs 29 crore in cash and five kilograms of gold jewellery from the second flat of Arpita Mukherjee in Kolkata.

The raids were being condcuted by the probe agency in connection with a school jobs scam.

After about 18-hour-long raid, ED officials left Arpita Mukherjee's house in Belgharia area of Kolkata with 10 trunks of cash.

Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee were arrested by the ED on 23 July, a day after the first lot of cash was discovered at the latter's home.

During the first raid, conducted last week, ED officials had recovered Rs 21 crore in cash, large amount of foreign exchange and gold bars worth Rs 2 crore from Arpita Mukherjee's other flat in Kolkata.

ED officials had used three note-counting machines to count the mountains of money recovered from her house.

The probe agency officials also found a diary with around 40 pages of notes that could provide crucial leads in the investigation.

Partha Chatterjee, a senior minister in West Bengal Cabinet is accused of playing a role in allegedly illegal recruitments of teachers and staff in government-run schools when he was the state education minister. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the alleged irregularities in the scam, while the ED is tracking the money trail.

When asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he should resign from the state cabinet, Partha Chatterjee told reporters, "What is the reason?". He holds the post of the commerce and industry ministry in West Bengal.

(With inputs from agencies)