Former state education minister Partha Chatterjee, who also held the industry, commerce and enterprise portfolio at one point, has been accused of masterminding a cash-for-jobs racket in the recruitment of teachers and staff for schools.

The charges against Chatterjee range from accepting bribes from ineligible candidates to conspiring with SSC officials, manipulating OMR sheets to place ineligible candidates on the merit list, and appointing dummy directors in shell companies for money laundering. He is facing trial for alleged corruption, cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

The 73-year-old, once considered the Trinamool Congress’s No. 2, hopped from jail to hospitals to courtrooms in the past three years.

A lowdown starting with his arrest on July 23, 2022.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Partha Chatterjee from his Naktala home following a day-long raid. The CBI took his custody on September 16, 2022.

Gold haul

Search and seizure at Chatterjee’s home led the ED to an address in Belgharia on the city’s northern fringes.

The locked apartment belonged to Chatterjee’s aide, Arpita Mukherjee, a former minor actor and model.

A search in the apartment at Club Town Residency yielded ₹21.9 crore and gold and diamond-encrusted jewellery worth ₹77 lakh.

Another raid at an apartment in Arpita’s name in Tollygunge resulted in the seizure of another ₹27.9 crore and gold ornaments and bars worth ₹4.31 crore. A total of ₹49.8 crore was seized along with jewellery worth ₹5.08 crore. They were suspected to be the proceeds from the alleged financial irregularities.

Arpita Mukherjee

A close associate of Chatterjee, Arpita’s name cropped up in the case during the search at Chatterjee’s Naktala home.

The ED said it found 31 insurance policies in the name of Arpita that were registered against the phone number of then minister Chatterjee. Twelve property deeds in her name were also found in Chatterjee’s residence, the ED said.

Multiple cases

Chatterjee was named in multiple cases probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate related to alleged irregularities in the recruitments.

A majority of the cases have reached the trial phase. But Chatterjee has yet to be pronounced guilty by a court.

Arpita’s bail

Arpita was granted bail last November as she had completed a third of the maximum punishment for her alleged offence under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002.

Life in jail

Sources at Presidency jail, where Chatterjee spent most of his time in the past three years, said one of the first things Chatterjee wanted after stepping in was Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita.

Chatterjee used to keep mostly to himself but was sometimes seen talking to fellow inmate and one-time cabinet colleague Jyotipriya Mullick.

Mullick was arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in the recruitment to civic bodies.

A jail source recalled how Chatterjee would be “demoralised” when some of his co-accused in the case obtained bail before him and were allowed to walk out.

“He would say that there was no proof against him. Yet he had been kept inside because he was a minister,” one source said.

Jail even after bail

This August, a division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh granted Chatterjee bail in the CBI case, the last one. However, the court ordered that Chatterjee would be released only after the trial court completed the examination of material witnesses in two months.

Last year, the Supreme Court granted him bail in the ED case.

Despite obtaining bail, Chatterjee had to stay in confinement till the testimony of the witnesses was complete, so Chatterjee could not use his “influence” even if hewas out.

Freedom at last

On Monday (November 11), a special CBI court in Alipore passed an order for Chatterjee’s release after completing the hearing of the lastwitness.

Jail officials communicated the formal court order to RN Tagore Jospital on Monday. Chatterjee walked out on Tuesday.