Over Rs 50 crore in cash, gold after second raid from house of Partha Chatterjee’s aide Arpita
Over Rs 29 crore worth cash was found in a flat in Belgharia on Wednesday.
About Rs 29 crore in cash and several kilograms of gold jewellery and slabs were found from the Belgharia flat of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee by the Enforcement Directorate. Last week, over Rs 21 crore cash was found from her Tollygunge flat by the ED. The ED had said after last week’s recovery, that it was connected with the teachers’ recruitment in School Service Commission (SSC) scam.
The two days’ raid makes the total cash amount exceed Rs 50 crore, apart from the huge amount of gold and silver found in the two flats. Yesterday’s recovery was from one of Arpita Mukherjee’s Belgharia flats where the ED broke open the lock and entered and found cash bundles in a room. The entire procedure took about 18 hours, which were then put inside 10 trunks. The ED authorities took the help of bank officials who used machines to count the huge number of notes.
West Bengal Commerce and Industries and Information Technology minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee were both arrested on July 23. They are both in ED custody till August 3. Chatterjee was state education minister when the SSC scam allegedly took place.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said publicly that she does not support corruption and will not back anyone if proved guilty. However, she also raised questions on the timing of the ED raids and alleged that there were attempts to topple the state government in the lines of Maharashtra. She said the truth must be out within a short time frame and if proved guilty, she is not going to support “anybody”.
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