Had no access to rooms where money was kept, belongs to Partha: Arpita Mukherjee
Arrested Arpita Mukherjee has told the ED officials that the recovered money belongs to Partha Chatterjee and he along with his men used to come and hoard the money here.
PremiumIn another development in teacher recruitment scam, arrested Arpita Mukherjee has claimed that she had no access to those rooms where the federal agency sleuths recovered crores in cash and said Partha Chatterjee's men used to keep that money in her rooms, said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials.
She has told the ED officials that the recovered money belongs to Partha Chatterjee and he along with his men used to come and hoard the money in her flats. Mukherjee also claimed that Partha Chatterjee used her flats as 'mini-bank', said ED sleuths as reported by Hindustan Times.
The ED officials conducted raids at another apartment that is linked to Arpita Mukherjee , a close associate of arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, in the city's Chinar Park area on late Thursday evening, as per reports given by news agency PTI.
They also recovered around ₹28 crore in cash from another flat of Mukherjee who was also arrested by the central agency in connection with the investigation into the school jobs scam. Last week, the ED seized cash amounting to ₹21 crore from another residence of Arpita Mukherjee.
The ED sleuths said that Mukherjee revealed about Chinar Park property during questioning earlier in the day. The investigators seized her flats.
The stacks of cash were recovered from the apartment in Belgharia on Wednesday, and after overnight counting, it amounted to ₹27.90 crore, an ED official said. The value of the gold jewellery, believed to be in kgs is yet to be ascertained.
In all, nearly ₹50 crore in cash has been seized so far, officials said.
The CBI is already probing into the criminal angle of the case on the orders of the Calcutta high court. They were joined by the ED, who in June lodged two FIRs to unearth the money trail that was allegedly involved in the multi-crore scam.
Meanwhile, Chatterjee was arrested on Saturday on money-laundering charges linked to the SSC (School Service Commission) scam. He was accused of a role in alleged illegal appointments of schoolteachers and staff in government-run schools when he was the state Education Minister. Currently, he is in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody.
Earlier on Thursday, West Bengal government removed Chatterjee from the ministry. For the time being, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will look after the portfolios that were with him.
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