Ex-Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee confronted with Arpita in ED custody

KOLKATA: Former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee, who have been in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since their arrest in the cash-for-jobs case on July 23, were on Thursday brought face-to-face by the federal agency to confront the two about contradictions in their statements including the source of ₹50 crore cash seized from two flats owned by Mukherjee.

Arpita Mukherjee earlier told ED that the money belongs to Partha Chatterjee and that he and his men used to come to her flats to leave the money and that she did not have access to these rooms. Partha Chatterjee, on the other hand, too has denied that the money was his. “When the time comes, you will know...the money does not belong to me,” he recently told reporters.

The two were arrested in connection with the multi-crore recruitment scam in recruiting teachers during the last term of the TMC government, when he was an education minister. The Calcutta high court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI ) inquiry in May.

They have been in the custody of ED officials investigating them for money laundering charges on orders of a Kolkata special court, which on Thursday, gave the agency till August 5 to complete their questioning.

On a fresh round of searches carried out on Thursday, an ED official said an apartment on south Kolkata’s Panditya Road was searched after breaking open the door. One of the doors was made of steel and a local locksmith was called in to break open the door, the official said.

The locksmith later told reporters that the steel door was imported from China and his team had installed it.

It is not clear if the apartment searched on Thursday is among the nine flats linked to the two accused which had been detected earlier. The federal agency earlier told the court that they have found at least nine flats, five of which are owned by Mukherjee.

Documents available with the ED suggest that the two accused started their partnership way back in 2012.

“A conveyance deed of 2012 (bearing number I-357/2012) registered in Bolpur in the joint names of Chatterjee and Mukherjee makes it crystal clear that their association goes back to 2012. The two entered into a partnership with equal share (deed dated November 1, 2012) and set up a company named M/s APA Utility Services. Properties were purchased in the name of this firm, sometimes using cash,” said an ED official.

The agency has thus far recovered ₹50 crore in cash and gold jewellery worth ₹5 crore from two flats belonging to Mukherjee and estimates the total amount involved to be around ₹120 crore. Among the jewellery seized from Mukherjee’s flat are six gold bangles, each weighing 500gm. “Why would someone order a bangle that heavy?” the ED official asked, suggesting that the jewellery was designed to hoard wealth.

But a senior ED official insisted that the partnership of Chatterjee and Mukherjee doesn’t end with cash, gold, a few flats and some firms.

“At least 31 life insurance documents have been found in the name of Mukherjee. Chatterjee was the nominee in all of them,” the senior official said.

The first ED official cited above said the agency had been able to extract the data from the more than two dozen phones seized during the last fortnight.

“At least 28 mobile phones, including the one which Mukherjee used to stay in touch with Chatterjee, were seized from Mukherjee’s south Kolkata flat during the raid on July 22. Technical experts managed to complete the data extraction on August 2,” said an ED official.

The 28 phones include three new unused phones and 18 old phones that were not functional any longer. Seven phones were currently being used. Two hard disks, each of 1 TB capacity, were also seized from Mukherjee’s flat.