The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday unearthed another stack of cash from a flat of Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee who was arrested in connection with the school recruitment scam. The central agency had last Saturday seized Rs 21.9 crore in cash and unaccounted gold ornaments worth Rs 76 lakh from her Tollygunge flat, following which she was arrested.
This time, huge cash and several other vital documents were found in another apartment owned by Mukherjee at Belgharia in the northern fringes of Kolkata city. The ED sleuths had to break open the door of the apartment as they couldn't spot the key.
"We have found a good amount of money from one of the flats in a housing complex. We have brought three note counting machines to know the exact amount," an official told PTI.
The probe agency on Wednesday conducted raids at several properties of Mukherjee, including the flat of her mother at Belgharia Club Town in North 24 Parganas.
Both Mukherjee and Chatterjee are currently under ED custody following their arrest. The agency said Mukherjee was “cooperative throughout”, but the minister was not.
According to some reports, Mukherjee told the investigators that the minister used to stash money at her home and treat it like a "mini-bank". She told ED that Chatterjee used to visit her house every week or every 10 days.
"Partha used my house and that of another woman as a mini-bank. That other woman is also his close friend," she told ED sleuths, reported NDTV.
Chatterjee held the education portfolio when the recruitment scam in state-sponsored and-aided schools was allegedly pulled off.
The CBI, as directed by the Calcutta High Court, is looking into the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam.
