New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday (September 19, 2022) said that it has attached assets worth Rs 46.22 crore "beneficially owned" by former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his alleged aide Arpita Mukherjee as part of a money laundering probe in the state's teachers' recruitment scam. In an official statement, the federal agency said that the attached properties include 40 immovable assets like flats, a farmhouse, and a "prime land" in Kolkata worth a total of Rs 40.33 crore, apart from Rs 7.89 crore worth of deposits kept in 35 bank accounts.


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"The attached properties are found to be beneficially owned by Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee. A number of the attached properties were kept in the name of dummy companies & firms and persons acting as a proxy for Partha Chatterjee," the statement read. 


The former minister in the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal and his close associate were arrested by the ED on July 23 this year after it carried out search operations at various premises linked to the teacher recruitment scam. 


The ED had earlier seized cash amounting to a total of Rs 49.80 crore, and gold and jewelry valued at more than Rs 5.08 crore from two premises during the searches conducted in July. 


"With the present attachment, total attachment/ seizure in the case stands at Rs 103.10 crore. Further investigation is under progress," the agency said.


Partha, currently, has been remanded in CBI custody till September 21 on a prayer by the agency seeking to question him in connection with a school recruitment scam.