Following the recovery of huge amounts of cash from two of her flats by the Enforcement Directorate, Arpita Mukherjee has confessed that the cash belonged to the now-sacked cabinet minister in West Bengal’s TMC government, Partha Chatterjee. As per reports, 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 them.
An ED official said, “She has confessed that Chatterjee used to come to both her Tollygunge and Belgharia residences once or even twice a week, and during his visits, he was accompanied by a person unknown to her. Mukherjee has also confessed that she did not even have access to the keys of the cupboards from where the cash recoveries were made. There were strict instructions from Chatterjee not to fiddle with the cupboards and also avoid frequenting the rooms where these cupboards were.”
Partha Chatterjee used my house as a ‘mini bank’: Arpita Mukherjee
Arpita Mukherjee reportedly told the ED officials that Partha Chatterjee used her house as a ‘mini bank‘. She mentioned during the interrogation that the money was never carried by Chatterjee but by his assistants. She also said that the cash was kept in the cupboards of a room and she didn’t have access to those cupboards.
Arpita also told the agency that apart from her house, Chatterjee used another woman’s house as a “mini bank”. The other woman is also said to be a close friend of the minister.
So far, ED has recovered over 21 Crores from one of Arpita Mukherjee’s flats and nearly 29 Crores from another flat. Apart from the cash, a lot of jewelry has 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.