ED raids several properties allegedly owned by minister’s aide Arpita

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided some properties reportedly owned by Arpita Mukherjee, close aide of arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee. These properties are in Belgharia in the northern fringes of Kolkata and Rajdanga Main Road of Kasba in the city’s east. A third address was also checked by the ED in Ballygunge. Apart from that, the ED also checked Arpita Mukherjee’s house in Belgharia where her mother lives alone.

The state Commerce and Industries and Information Technology (IT) minister was arrested on Saturday by ED from his residence in Naktala in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment in School Service Commission (SSC) scam. Chatterjee was the education minister when the scam allegedly took place. The ED on Friday recovered Rs 21.9 crore in cash from the house of an associate of the minister, Arpita Mukherjee in this connection. The Central probe agency released a statement which stated: “The said amount in suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam.”

Both were produced in court and the ED has the minister and his aide in custody till August 3. They were taken to the ESI Hospital for medical tests on Tuesday morning and then to the CGO Complex where they were questioned by ED officers. The raids by ED on Tuesday are said to be in connection with the findings by officers after interrogating Mukherjee and further probe into the case. The ED has reportedly come across several properties owned by Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee and all these are being investigated.