Partha Chatterjee arrested, sent to 2-day ED custody

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in connection with its investigation into the alleged teacher recruitment scam case.

Chatterjee, who is currently the Industry and Commerce minister, was arrested on Saturday morning from his Naktala residence in South Kolkata after almost 27 hours of interrogation. On the other hand, Mukherjee was arrested on Saturday afternoon.

They were produced at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court and have been remanded to ED custody for two days. They will be produced at the Special PMLA court at the Bichar Bhawan on Monday.

Advocate Somnath Mukherjee, pleading on behalf of Chatterjee, said that the latter had fallen sick on more than one occasion during the marathon interrogation session and needed medical attention. Mukherjee prayed for Chatterjee's admission at SSKM Hospital for conducting various medical tests. The ED lawyer, however, opposed the prayer and said that the minister should be admitted either at Command Hospital in Alipore or at Joka ESI hospital. The court, however, ruled in favour of Chatterjee and directed the SSKM authorities to provide medical reports of Chatterjee when he will be produced again before the court on Monday. The ED also detained Chatterjee's former personal secretary (PA) Sukanta Acharya on Saturday. Chatterjee was the state Education minister when the alleged SSC recruitment scam had taken place and ED is probing the alleged money laundering trial in this connection. Chatterjee, while being taken to Joka ESI Hospital for medical examination after his arrest, claimed that he has not been allowed to contact Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee.

It is alleged that the minister was not cooperating with the investigating officers and was hence arrested. He was either denying or bypassing the questions asked by the ED officials.

On Friday during the raids in various places, ED officials came up with the name of a woman identified as Arpita Mukherjee who is said to be the "close aide" of the former Education minister. Immediately, ED officials went to Mukherjee's flat near Tollygunge from where Rs 21 crore in Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denominations were recovered. Also, several documents related to immovable properties and gold jewellery worth around Rs 50 lakh along with 22 mobile phones were found. The phones have been seized for examination.

The ED officials have come to know about another woman who reportedly used to look after several houses of Chatterjee in Bolpur, Birbhum.

Chatterjee was the state Education minister when the scam took place and the ED was probing the money laundering aspect based on an FIR by the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) that was filed following orders of the Calcutta high court to investigate the alleged scam in the recruitment of Group 'C' and 'D' staff, assistant teachers of classes 11 and 12 and primary teachers.