SSC scam: Arpita Mukherjee sent to one-day ED custody

Kolkata, July 24: Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of West Bengal cabinet minister and former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, was sent to one-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody by a Kolkata court on Sunday in connection with the teacher recruitment scam.

She will be produced before the special court tomorrow. "This case can only go ahead in Special Court. The ED had asked for 14 days of custody which was denied. The Court has not given the remand of 14 days, only one-day remand has been given. She will be presented to Special Court tomorrow," Niladri Bhattacharya, Arpita Mukherjee's lawyer told news agency ANI.

ED personnel had on July 22 carried out raids at various places in West Bengal as part of their probe into the money trail involved in a teacher recruitment scam at government-sponsored and -aided schools.

Crores of rupees in cash along with other items were allegedly recovered from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, who apparently happens to be a close associate of Chatterjee, the industries minister who earlier held the education portfolio, according to PTI sources.

Meanwhile, the TMC on Sunday demanded a time-bound investigation in the Enforcement Directorate case, while asserting the party will not interfere politically if any leader was found to have done anything wrong.

Chatterjee, who was the state education minister when the scam took place, was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling in connection with the probe on Saturday.

He will be in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till Monday and will then be produced in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh denied the reports on the party having links with Arpita Mukherjee.

"The party demands time-bound investigation in the case," he said, maintaining that investigations by central agencies in some cases have been going on for many years.

The CBI has been investigating the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case since 2014, while the Narada tapes case, which unfolded ahead of 2016 elections, was also yet to reach any conclusion. Ghosh said that the delay in completion of probe processes was not acceptable and that opposition parties "will use it as a tool to cast aspersions" against the TMC.

"If the ED produces any proof of its allegations and the court accepts it, the TMC and the government will initiate steps against any leader, however big he may be," Ghosh said, adding that the law will take its own course.

Referring to some videos doing the rounds of Arpita at programmes that were also attended by Chatterjee and other ministers, authenticity of which has not been checked by PTI, the spokesperson insisted that many people from different walks of life remain attend political and social events.

"But this woman is in no way related to Trinamool Congress," he said about Mukherjee, who is also known to have acted in Bengali films. "It is not a matter of TMC; it is the responsibility of those whose names have come up or their lawyer to speak on the issue, the party has no relation with it," Ghosh said.