Days after heaps of cash and kilos of gold were seized from his aide Arpita Mukherjee’s homes in Kolkata, sacked Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee today claimed the money did not belong to him.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized around ₹ 50 crore cash from two homes belonging to Ms Mukherjee during raids in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers. Both Mr Chatterjee and Ms Mukherjee were arrested earlier this month.
The former minister, now suspended by his party, was surrounded by reporters today when he was brought to a central government-run hospital in Kolkata for a check-up.
Responding to a question if anyone is conspiring against him, the former minister replied that they will get to know everything “when the time comes”.
“It’s not my money,” he replied to questions on the recovery of cash made from Ms Mukherjee’s homes.
Besides cash, the ED officials also found a huge amount of foreign exchange, gold, and records of various premises of the individuals involved in the scam.
Ms Mukherjee, it is learnt, has told investigators that the cash mountains were kickbacks received for transfers and for helping colleges get recognition.
The BJP has alleged that Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was also involved in the alleged irregularities. The Trinamool, which had initially come out in Mr Chatterjee’s defence and accused the Centre of misusing probe agencies, later tweaked its stand and sacked Mr Chatterjee as minister.
