Kolkata, July 28 (FN Agency) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has allegedly found nearly Rs 28 crore cash stashed in arrested model-actress Arpita Mukherjee’s flat in the city’s northern suburb, amidst suspicion it could be the “proceeds of the School Service Commission recruitment scam”. Sources said the central agency, probing the money trail of the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff in government-aided primary and secondary schools in West Bengal, had last week seized Rs 21.90 crore, besides a huge amount of jewellery and foreign currency from another flat owned by Mukherjee in South Kolkata. The latest discovery of cash was made from her flat in Belgharia during overnight raids that stretched Into Thursday morning. Mukherjee, whom the ED described as “a close associate” of arrested Bengal commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee was now in the central agency’s custody following a court order.
Chatterjee, the state education minister when the controversial recruitment were made, was arrested on last Saturday after a 27-hour search and grilling at his South Kolkata house by the ED. Beginning on Wednesday afternoon, the ED sleuths conducted a 18-hour search at two flats in Belgharia owned by Mukherjee. While they did not stumble upon anything substantial in one flat, Rs 27.90 crore in cash, six kilos of gold worth over Rs 3 crore, silver coins and many property documents were said to have been found from the other one, sources and eye-witnesses said. The cash, in Rs 500 and Rs 2000 denominations, was purportedly concealed in the bathroom and bedroom of the 1400 sq ft flat located on the eighth floor of a posh housing society. The ED sleuths entered the flat after breaking open the locks of the apartment with the help of the central forces around 2 pm on Wednesday, sources said. The ED was also assisted by some state,-owned bank officials, who were summoned to calculate the amount with counting machines. Sources said the ED was likely to quiz both Chatterjee and Mukherjee together at its office, where the duo has been held. The Calcutta High Court in a slew of writ petitions had in April directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to carry out an investigation into the recruitment scam of Group ‘C’ & ‘D’ staff, assistant teachers of classes IX-XII and primary school teachers. While the CBI is looking into the criminality of the alleged scam, the ED is investigating cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.