ED’s eastern zone office recovers Rs 11,500 crore in four years

The eastern regional office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recovered a massive amount of Rs 11,500 crore during the last four years. 

This is the highest amount among all its regional offices, said sources, adding that the maximum recovery has been done in cases related to West Bengal.

Sources said the recovery amount in the recruitment irregularities for teachers in the primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary levels has been around Rs 380 crore.

The maximum cash recovery in the school job case was from the twin residences of Arpita Mukherjee, the close associate of the former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee in 2022, where the cash haul was to the tune of Rs 52 crore.

Both of them are currently in judicial custody for their alleged connection with the school job case.

Another major recovery in terms of cash, freezing of bank accounts and cryptocurrencies was in the case of the E-Nuggets gaming app scam at Rs 150 crore.

The combined recovery in the state ration distribution and Sandeshkhali illegal land grabbing cases had been Rs 66 crore.

Recently, the ED has also started a suo motu investigation in the case of financial irregularities at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata. In most of these cases, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting parallel investigations.

Satyabrata Kumar, a 2004-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer took charge of the new Special Director (eastern region) on Monday.

He was earlier attached to the ED’s western region office as Special Director.

Kumar replaced Subhash Agarwal, who has been transferred to the ED’s western regional office.

Satyabrata Kumar had earlier served as a staff officer to the former ED Director, Sanjay Kumar Mishra. He had handled important cases of money laundering like those involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, among others.