Bengal SSC Recruitment: ED Files Fresh Chargesheet, Alleges ₹630.40 Crore Proceeds

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a fresh supplementary chargesheet in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBCSSC) Group-C and Group-D recruitment scam, naming former state education minister Partha Chatterjee, his alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee, expelled Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh and others. The supplementary prosecution complaint was filed on August 20 before the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Kolkata. The ED had filed its first chargesheet in the case in January 2025. The money-laundering probe stems from a CBI FIR alleging large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of Group-C and Group-D staff through the WBCSSC.

According to the ED, ₹630.40 crore has been quantified as the alleged proceeds of crime in the Group-C and Group-D recruitment case, although the agency said the figure could be higher. Investigators allege that candidates were charged between ₹10 lakh and ₹20 lakh, with around ₹15–16 lakh for Group-C posts and ₹10–12 lakh for Group-D posts. Alleged middleman Prasanna Kumar Roy and his associates are accused of facilitating the collection and routing of the money and arranging recommendation and appointment letters.

The agency has alleged that Chatterjee, who was education minister during the period under investigation, exercised extensive authority over the WBCSSC and allied institutions and misused his position to facilitate illegal appointments. The ED claims lists of allegedly undeserving candidates were prepared pursuant to directions attributed to him. Investigators have also alleged OMR-score manipulation, rank jumping, out-of-panel appointments, appointments after panel expiry and manipulation through RTI and re-evaluation mechanisms.

The controversy dates back to the 2016 WBCSSC recruitment process for teaching and non-teaching positions. The Supreme Court's April 2025 judgment recorded serious discrepancies, including 4,091 candidates with OMR mismatches and 1,498 out-of-panel appointments. The court ultimately upheld the cancellation of more than 25,000 appointments, finding the selection process tainted by widespread fraud and manipulation.

The ED has separately attached properties worth approximately ₹247.35 crore in the Group-C and Group-D case and said properties worth more than ₹702 crore have been attached across the wider SSC and primary-teacher recruitment investigations.

The latest chargesheet comes as the broader recruitment controversy continues to have legal and administrative consequences. Fresh recruitment exercises have been conducted to fill vacancies created after the Supreme Court's intervention, including new Group-C and Group-D examinations in 2026.

Chatterjee, Mukherjee and Ghosh were also chargesheeted by the ED in June in a separate money-laundering case linked to Assistant Teacher recruitment. Chatterjee, arrested in July 2022 in a related recruitment case, was later granted conditional bail by the Supreme Court and released in April 2026.