New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 609 crore as part of its money laundering investigations into three different teachers and staff recruitment "scams" in West Bengal.
It said a fresh order has been issued to attach land parcels, commercial spaces, flats and villas worth Rs 56.50 crore in the case related to hiring by School Service Commission (SSC) for group C and D staff.
The assets are held in the name of the companies and LLPs (limited liability partnership) of alleged "main middleman" Prasanna Kumar Roy and his associates, the federal probe agency said in a statement.
These properties are worth Rs 56.50 crore, it said.
A total of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of state-run and aided schools lost their jobs after the Supreme court found large-scale irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process and scrapped the entire panel on April 3.
The Supreme Court on April 17 extended till December 31 the services of terminated teachers found clean by the CBI.
The ED earlier attached properties worth Rs 163.66 crore in this case in the name of Roy and and his "main agent" Chandan Mondal. Both are currently lodged in jail under judicial custody after the agency arrested them.
The second recruitment "scam" case of West Bengal in which the ED has earlier attached assets is the assistant teacher recruitment for classes 9 to 12. The attachment value in this case is Rs 238.78 crore, it said.
The third such case is that of the primary teachers recruitment where the agency has seized assets worth Rs 151 crore.
"Thus, the total attachment by ED Kolkata office in the recruitment scam cases stands at Rs. 609.9 crore," it said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged protesting teachers, who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court ruling, to return to work, assuring them that her government will "protect" their salaries.
She said a review petition will also be filed before the Supreme Court and asked these teachers to "keep your faith in us till then".
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