The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started an assessment and valuation of properties found in the names of Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee, sources in the central agency said.
The officers said the first property to be assessed by a team of surveyors on Monday was a plot near Baghajatin on the southern fringes of Kolkata that had been purchased in the name of one of Chatterjee’s relatives where a hospital for animals was apparently set to come up.
The property has been measured and its value will be assessed according to the present market rates, sources said.
Assessment of their properties is the first step so that later it can be compared with their income. “This is the basic step for any case of disproportionate assets,” said an ED officer.
Several other properties found in the name of Chatterjee and Mukherjee have been listed for survey and valuation, sources said.
Chatterjee and Mukherjee were questioned at the ED office in Salt Lake on Tuesday. “They were questioned separately for several hours with three-four breaks in between,” the officer said.
Another officer said based on their statements, the investigators will widen their net and start questioning officials of the education department whose alleged role has emerged during investigations into the irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and other staff in government-aided schools.
The ED on Tuesday called for questioning former president of the primary education board and Trinamul MLA from Nadia Manik Bhattacharya. He has to present himself before ED officers by Wednesday noon.
Bhattacharya, who has been questioned several times by the CBI in connection with the same probe, had earlier been asked by Calcutta High Court to submit a list of properties in his and his wife’s name.
Bhattacharya had declared his educational qualification as LLB, LLM and PhD. He had declared that he owned a flat in Jadavpur and a landed property in Nayabad, near Garia, which he had bought in 1984-85.
The ED conducted a search at his home last week.
“We have got a part of the proceeds of the crime. But now it is most important to establish the chain of commission of the crime. All the officials who were part of the recruitment process will be questioned one by one,” said an ED officer.
The officers claimed to have seized documents related to the West Bengal Board of Primary Education along with a note from then president Bhattacharya on proposed teacher postings.
ED officers while probing the money trail have found that the joint property found in the name of Chatterjee and Mukherjee at 683, Madurdaha was purchased in 2012. “We have learned that the agreement was signed in Mukherjee’s flat where the owner was given Rs 1.35 lakh in cash while the remaining Rs 7,000 was paid by cheque,” said an officer.
The Telegraph visited the building and found several families living inside who were not willing to talk.
ED sources said they had found at least four other plots of land at Shyambati in Santiniketan in Mukherjee’s name.
