Partha Chatterjee removed from all posts, says West Bengal govt

Arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was on Thursday removed from ministry with immediate effect over graft charges. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted raids in three locations in and around Kolkata and again recovered large stacks of cash from a flat linked to Arpita Mukherjee. The unaccounted money was found five days after the agency seized more than Rs 21 crore in cash, besides jewellery and foreign exchange from another flat of Mukherjee, who was also arrested on July 23.

The demand for dismissal of Chatterjee from the cabinet grew louder from within the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition parties.The federal anti-money laundering agency, probing the money trail of the teacher recruitment scam, also grilled TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya, a former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.Since this morning, ED officials conducted coordinated raids at various properties at Rajdanga in south Kolkata and Belgharia in the northern fringes of the city, which were reportedly owned by Mukherjee.