ED names Partha Chatterjee in a supplementary staff-hiring complaint; alleged SSC proceeds at least ₹630.40 crore.

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday, 24 August 2026, said it had filed a supplementary prosecution complaint in the West Bengal School Service Commission Group-C and Group-D staff recruitment money-laundering case. Named in that complaint are former education minister Partha Chatterjee, alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee and expelled Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh, among others. A prosecution complaint is agency paper. It is not a conviction.

One public account, restating the agency, says the supplementary complaint was filed on 20 August before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Kolkata. The first chargesheet in this case is dated January 2025. Monday’s announcement is a new agency statement on that already-filed supplementary. It is not a trial verdict and it is not a fresh first information report.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act probe is predicated on Central Bureau of Investigation first information reports alleging large-scale irregularities in recruitment of Group-C and Group-D staff through the West Bengal Central School Service Commission. The Enforcement Directorate alleged that Chatterjee, as then minister in-charge of the Education Department, exercised overarching authority over the Commission and allied institutions and misused official position to influence illegal recruitments. That is an allegation in the complaint. It is not a finding of a trial court.

The agency further alleged that lists of undeserving candidates were prepared pursuant to his directions and routed through arrested principal middleman Prasanna Kumar Roy and associates, who then issued recommendation and appointment letters. Manipulation of optical-mark-recognition-based results and rank jumping are also alleged. Amounts ranging from about ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh were demanded from candidates for various posts, the agency said; ₹15 lakh to ₹16 lakh for Group-C and ₹10 lakh to ₹12 lakh for Group-D were collected from undeserving candidates. Those rupee bands are Enforcement Directorate figures in a complaint. They are not a proved tariff.

Proceeds of crime are quantified at least ₹630.40 crore based on illegal appointments and amounts collected. The Enforcement Directorate said the actual figure may be higher because of rank jumping, out-of-panel appointments, appointments after panel expiry, and right-to-information or re-evaluation manipulation. ₹630.40 crore is a quantified floor on agency paper. It is not a court-settled loss.

The agency recalled that the Supreme Court held in April 2025 that the West Bengal Central School Service Commission recruitment process was vitiated by fraud and cancelled appointments of more than 25,000 teachers and staff. That April 2025 holding is a court finding on the recruitment process. It is not, by itself, a money-laundering conviction of the three persons named in Monday’s supplementary complaint.

The three named accused were also chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate in June in a separate Prevention of Money Laundering Act case on the Commission’s Assistant Teachers recruitment. Chatterjee was arrested in July 2022 in a third, primary-teachers, case; the Supreme Court later granted conditional bail; one public account says he was released in April this year. A separate chargesheet and an earlier arrest on another file do not convert this supplementary complaint into a conviction.

Kolkata’s special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court is the filing geography. Form B and any poll date are not notified on this file. This desk will not invent a remand date, a confiscation order, or a higher proceeds total the tip does not lock.

Until a court writes, the public ledger is a supplementary prosecution complaint naming Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee and Kuntal Ghosh, a 20 August filing announced on Monday, a January 2025 first chargesheet already on this staff-hiring file, alleged demands of about ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh with Group-C and Group-D bands of ₹15 lakh to ₹16 lakh and ₹10 lakh to ₹12 lakh, alleged proceeds of at least ₹630.40 crore, a Supreme Court April 2025 cancellation of more than 25,000 appointments, and a June Assistant Teachers chargesheet on a separate money-laundering file. Every rupee and every charge on this complaint remains allegation.