Arpita Mukherjee, close aide of SSC Scam accused formed minister Partha Chatterjee, broke down when she was brought to a hospital for medical examination by the Enforcement Directorate. There was a high-voltage drama outside the ESI hospital of Kolkata on 29th July 2022, as she was being taken for medical examination by the agency. Depressed Arpita Mukherjee, weeping, was seen falling down a number of times and the police were forced to drag her out of the car in order to take her for check-ups as ordered by the court.
As per the court orders, arrested accused Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee both are supposed to undergo medical check-ups every 48 hours when they are in ED custody. They were taken to Joka’s ESI Hospital by Enforcement Directorate officials. However, when ED’s vehicle carrying Arpita Mukherjee reached the hospital, she resisted getting out of the vehicle. She burst into tears and refused to come out of the vehicle, and the female staff of ED and the accompanying central armed forces had to virtually drag her out and take her to the hospital building.
She screamed, flailing her arms and shoving the security guards who were trying to get her out. She sat on the ground after being forced to leave. She was seen being pulled by security staff after they had attempted to persuade her to come. She was eventually dragged in, still weeping, on a wheelchair. On the other hand, Partha Chatterjee entered the hospital before Arpita Mukherjee even though his vehicle had arrived later.
Partha Chatterjee told the media personnel present there that he is innocent. He said, “I am a victim of conspiracy”.
According to reports, while investigating the details of this scam, the probing agency has found a shell company in which Arpita Mukherjee is one of the directors and there are records of transactions worth more than 74 lakhs in the name of the accused Arpita Mukherjee who is a close associate of the TMC leader and recently sacked West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee. When asked about the transactions, Arpita Mukherjee has thrown the former minister under the bus saying that all this was done by Parth Chatterjee and that she is innocent.
Earlier on 28th July, following the recovery of huge amounts of cash from two of her flats by the Enforcement Directorate, Arpita Mukherjee confessed that the cash belonged to Partha Chatterjee, and he was using her houses as ‘mini banks’. Arpita confessed in front of the ED officials that Chatterjee used her flats as storerooms for his illegal cash.
Arpita also mentioned during interrogation that Partha Chatterjee forced her to keep the cash there, and used to come there with one of his close associates who isn’t known to her. As per Arpita, whenever Chatterjee visited her residence, he used to have closed-door meetings with this unknown person in one of the rooms and she was not allowed to participate in those conversations.
So far, ED has recovered over 21 Crores from Arpita Mukherjee’s Tollygunge flats and nearly 29 Crores from another flat in Belgharia. Apart from the cash, a lot of gold, jewellery and foreign exchange also been found on the premises of these flats. Both Arpita Mukherjee and Partha Chatterjee are currently under ED custody following their arrest in the SSC scam case.