Arpita Mukherjee`s flat raided: ED fills trunks with cash worth Rs 28 crore; piles of cash found also in bathroom!

According to sources, around Rs 29 crore in cash, 5 kg gold ornaments and several land deeds were recovered from Arpita`s Belgharia flat in Kolkata. Arpita Mukherjee is a close aide of TMC leader Partha Chatterjee, who has been a minister in the Mamata Banerjee government.

Kolkata: The Arpita Mukherjee saga continues to get murkier as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reportedly completed its 8-hour raid on the second flat of former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee's aide. According to sources, nearly Rs 28 crore in cash, at least 5 kg gold and several land deeds were recovered from Arpita's Belgharia flat.  ED officials left the Belgharia residence of Arpita after filling 10 trunks with cash amounting to approximately Rs 28 crore that was found there. According to news reports, not just in the rooms, money was stashed also in the flat's bathroom. 

On Wednesday (July 27) evening, ED sleuths, escorted by central armed forces personnel, broke the entry lock of Arpita's residence and on opening the cupboard in a bedroom of the residence, the agency sleuths came across bundles of Indian currencies separately in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations. The ED sleuths immediately contacted the Reserve Bank of India's regional office in Kolkata for help in counting the notes. Within half an hour, four officials of the State Bank of India arrived with four jumbo currency counting machines capable of counting 1,000 notes at a go.

On July 22, ED sleuths recovered Indian currencies worth Rs 21.20 crore, in addition to foreign currencies worth Rs 70 lakhs and gold ornaments worth Rs 90 lakhs from Arpita Mukherjee's Diamond Park Housing Complex residence in South Kolkata. In addition to multiple high-end Apple iPhones, sale deeds of multiple flats and documents of multiple high-end passenger vehicles were recovered. The next day, ED arrested Partha Chatterjee in connection with the West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam. Arpita Mukherjee was also arrested.

The case has put the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a difficult position, with the Opposition also training its gun on the CM. Mamata earlier said that if found guilty, action should be taken against the culprits but she condemned "malicious" campaign against the TMC by BJP.

(With Agency inputs)