Sacked West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, who is at the centre of a multicrore school job scam, claimed that the cash during raids by the Enforcement Directorate did not belong to him. He also said the “conspirators” will be unmasked in due time.
The ED made fresh seizures of Rs 8 crore from the bank accounts of companies linked to Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee. The central agency’s probe showed that a massive amount of money was laundered through companies owned and controlled by Mukherjee. The seizure comes after the agency began the process of freezing Mukherjee’s bank accounts on Saturday.
While being taken for a medical check-up, Chatterjee told reporters, “The money (recovered) is not mine.” Asked if anybody was conspiring against him, he said, “You will get to know when the time comes.”
Exiting from the hospital later, he once again said he “has never been involved in such dealings”.
The ED previously recovered close to Rs 50 crore in cash along with gold, value of which is still being ascertained, as well as property documents from apartments linked to Mukherjee.
On the fresh seizures, the ED said it has found at least Rs 2 crore in at least three bank accounts linked to Partha Chatterjee’s aide. Bank accounts belonging to several “shell companies” of Mukherjee are also under ED scanner, officials said.
Chatterjee and Mukherjee also jointly purchased a 7 cottah plot in the Shyambati Mouza near Santiniketan in Bolpur, records accessed by CNN-News18 showed. The sale deed, dated January 20, 2012, showed that the plot was jointly purchased by the minister and his aide.
Currently, a single-storey residential farmhouse-styled building, called ‘Apa’, stands on the plot. Interestingly, the name ‘Apa’ comprises the first two letters of the Bangla alphabet of Arpita and Partha.
However, in government records, the property is owned by Mukherjee alone. Chatterjee’s name had mysteriously gone missing when the property was mutated for government records on 2020.
The caretakers of the property have claimed that they never saw the two visiting the property. Occasionally, some relatives and friends of the two, whose identity couldn’t be established, visited the property, they added.
The opposition, however, went at Chatterjee’s comments hammer and tongs, and said he should clarify who is the owner of the recovered money. “If the money recovered doesn’t belong to Partha Chatterjee, then whose is it? He should say this, people of this state want to know who is the owner of this looted money. He should spill the beans,” BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said.
The CBI, as directed by Calcutta High Court, is probing the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group-C and -D staff, as well as teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools, on the recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The ED is looking into the money trail involved in the scam. Chatterjee had held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off.
(With PTI inputs)
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