Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 20 SEP: Directorate of Enforcement (ED), which has filed its first chargesheet in the West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam, submitted a prosecution complaint against eight accused including Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee before the PMLA Special Court, Calcutta on Tuesday.
According to ED officials, six entities were used for money laundering. Partha and Arpita used M/s Echhay Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Ananta Texfab Pvt Ltd, Symbiosis Merchants Pvt Ltd, Sentry Engineering Pvt Ltd, Viewmore Highrise Pvt Ltd and APA Utility Services to launder the money. Special Court took cognizance of the Prosecution Complaint on Monday after finding that a prime-facie case has been made against the 8 accused persons.
ED had earlier arrested Partha Chatterjee, the then Minister, Government of West Bengal and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee on 23 July. The accused are presently in Judicial Custody and will be produced again before the Special Court on 28 September.
ED has already seized cash amounting to a total of Rs. 49.80 Crore gold and jewellery valued at more than Rs. 5.08 Crore and provisionally attached properties worth Rs. 48.22 Crore thus the total seizure in the case stands at Rs. 103.10 Crore.
The ED has claimed that accused Arpita Mukherjee has confessed before it that the cash and gold worth several crores recovered from her two residences in July actually belonged to former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, the prime accused in the case.
As per sources, the ED chargesheet mentions that when she was asked about the real owner of the seized cash amounting to Rs 49.80 crore and gold valued at more than Rs 5 crore during interrogation on 4 August, Arpita had admitted that so far she had repeatedly refused to disclose the real owner of the seized cash and gold.
Later Arpita also told the central agency that she did this fearing her personal security and that of her mother. “Arpita Mukherjee then said that the seized cash amounting to Rs 49.80 crore and gold/jewellery valued at more than Rs 5 crore from her two residences belonged to Partha Chatterjee. She also filed an application for treating her disclosure as a plea for taking a lenient view under the provisions of law,” said the source, citing the ED chargesheet.
Tags: #ED #ParthaChatterjee #ArpitaMukherjee #Chargesheet #CalcuttaHighCourt
