Two teams of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reached two tea estates in Jalpaiguri district on Friday in connection with the investigation into the SSC scam involving former education minister Partha Chatterjee.

Prasanna Roy, a relative of Chatterjee who is also behind bars now for his connection with the scam, owned Samsing, a tea estate in Matiali block, and Bamandanga-Tondu, another tea estate which is in the neighbouring Nagrakata block of the district.

Around 8am, the teams reached the gardens. They were there till late evening, collecting different documents, and left after almost 12 hours.

“The teams of ED reached the gardens today to collect information about Prasanna Roy, who used to run the gardens earlier, and some other details. They took different documents from us. Due to the visit, regular activities got affected in both places,” said Rittick Bhattacharya, who is running the gardens now.

Sources said that since 2020, Prasanna has been running both the tea estates. In 2022, Partha Chatterjee was arrested in connection with the SSC scam, and within another two months, Prasanna was also arrested.

“After his arrest, Prasanna had assigned one of his relatives to run the gardens. But eventually, both the gardens closed down due to non-payment of wages and some other issues,” said a source.

In 2023, the state handed over the gardens to Bhattacharya. There are 1,850 workers in these two gardens.

A source said that investigators of the ED suspect that a portion of the illegal money that was accumulated by the former education minister through the recruitment of school teachers was invested in these tea estates through Prasanna.

“Today, the teams inspected bank account details, passbooks, and some other documents at the offices of the gardens,” said a source.

A section of workers assembled in front of the factory in Bamandanga-Tondu.

“We have no idea why the ED team has come here and have nothing to say about their investigation. We don’t want the garden to close down again,” said Kailash Gope, a worker.

Sources said the ED officials have also served a notice to Bhattacharya, who is running the gardens now. “He has been asked to report at the ED office in Calcutta on June 9 with documents related to the handing over of the gardens,” said a source.