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- No compromise on injustice to commoners: Abhishek Banerjee
- 'What is the source of this money?', questions Abhishek
- If somebody commits wrong, he won't be spared: Abhishek
- Trinamul leader Abhishek Banerjee addresses party meeting
- Another house of Partha Chatterjee's aide being searched, reports NDTV
The West Bengal government on Thursday removed Partha Chatterjee, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a school jobs scam, from the ministry with immediate effect.
"Partha Chatterjee, minister in charge, department of industry, commerce and enterprises, department of information technology and electronics, department of parliamentary affairs and department of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction, is hereby relieved of his duties as MIC of the aforesaid department with immediate effect," an official order said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later said at a government event here that she will look after the portfolios held by Chatterjee for the time being.
The ED had arrested Chatterjee, who is also the Trinamul Congress secretary-general, on July 23 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruitment drives by the School Service Commission (SSC).
The central agency has also arrested Chatterjee's close associate Arpita Mukherjee, and seized crores of rupees from her houses in different parts of the city.
Earlier on Thursday, the Trinamul's state general secretary Kunal Ghosh demanded that Chatterjee should be removed immediately from his post and expelled from the Trinamool Congress. He tweeted his demand and but withdrew it after Trinamul MP Abhishek Benerjee convened a meeting of the party in the evening.
"Partha Chatterjee should be removed from ministry and all party posts immediately. He should be expelled. If this statement considered wrong, party has every right to remove me from all posts. I shall continue as a soldier of @AITCofficial (TMC)," Ghosh, also the party's spokesperson, tweeted.
Nearly Rs 50 crore in cash, and gold believed to be in kilograms were recovered from apartments linked to Chatterjee's close associate Arpita Mukherjee, besides documents of properties and foreign exchange, as per officials of the Enforcement Directorate, which arrested them.Later, he said that he has full faith in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. "I think they will take the appropriate decision," he said.
"He (Partha Chatterjee) is saying why he would quit as minister. Why is he not saying in the public domain that he is innocent and has no relation with Arpita Mukherjee? What is stopping him from doing that? I have full faith in Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, and I think they will take the appropriate decision," Ghosh said.
The comment came amid the opposition BJP and CPI(M)'s attack on the TMC for not taking any action against Chatterjee even as huge amounts of cash were recovered from properties linked to him. On Wednesday, Ghosh said that hoped the TMC leadership would take note of the public perception as the recovery of cash brought "disgrace" to the party and "shame to all of us".
TMC spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya, whose 'Khela Hobe' song headlined the party's 2021 election campaign, also demanded that Chatterjee be expelled.
"As a party worker, I feel that we don't deserve this public humiliation because of one person. The leadership should take note of it and expel him from the party," he said.
Reacting to the statements, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya claimed that the TMC was trying to distance itself from Chatterjee.
"All these years, he was a powerful minister and a party leader. Now, as he has been arrested, the TMC is trying to distance itself from him. The TMC is trying to make him a scapegoat. The money trail has to be investigated," he said.
The chief minister recently said that if someone is found guilty, she would not spare that person even if he is a minister.
Chatterjee holds the portfolios of Commerce & Industry, Parliamentary Affairs, Information Technology and Electronics, and Public Enterprises & Industrial Reconstruction in the state cabinet.
Chatterjee, also the secretary-general of the Trinamool Congress, was arrested on Saturday in the SSC scam.
The CBI, as directed by the Calcutta High Court, is probing the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC). The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam.
Chatterjee was the education minister when the alleged irregularities took place.
On Tuesday, his official car was taken back by the state assembly.
TMC's mouthpiece Jago Bangla (Wake up, Bengal) has stopped naming him either as a minister or the party's secretary-general. However, his name remains in the printer's line as its editor.
