Manik Bhattacharya, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in connection with the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal.
He served as the chairman of West Bengal Board of Primary Education.
The Calcutta High Court removed him from his position in June of this year due to his alleged involvement in the scam.
The ED has detained Bhattacharya, a TMC legislator, in connection with the scam.
The former state education minister Partha Chatterjee was detained by the federal authorities earlier in July.
Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, had two flats where the ED had seized approximately 50 crore in cash.
Bhattacharya filed a petition with the Supreme Court earlier in September after being ordered to appear before the CBI by a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the Calcutta High Court.
On September 30, the supreme court released Bhattacharya from arrest by the agency awaiting further instructions.
However, a senior ED official said that Bhattacharya's relief from the supreme court was actually for the CBI.
After consulting with his legal team's experts and conducting a parallel probe, the ED arrested him.
On Tuesday, he will appear in a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.
The West Bengal Central School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education were accused of illegally appointing teaching employees and non-teaching staff (Group C and D) in May, and the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to investigate the matter.
A parallel investigation into the money laundering was opened by the ED. In September, the ED filed its first chargesheet for the case.
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