A day after he was removed from all posts in the TMC and relieved of ministerial duties following his arrest in connection with the school recruitment scam, Partha Chatterjee on Friday, July 29, said he was the victim of a conspiracy hatched against him.
The 69-year-old leader, who is in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody, was taken to the ESI Hospital in Joka on the city’s southern outskirts for a Medical- Check Up during the day.
As he got down from a vehicle and was approached by journalists, Chatterjee said that he was just the victim of a conspiracy.
Chatterjee, who was the Minister for Industry and Parliamentary Affairs, held the Education portfolio when the scam was allegedly dropped. One of his close aides Arpita Mukherjee was also arrested by the ED after the ED seized crores of rupees in cash from their residences in some parts of the city.
On Thursday evening, officials of the central agency raided the third apartment belonging to Mukherjee in the Chinar Park area of the city.
Since the flat was locked and the keys could not be traced, ED officials broke into its entrance in the presence of central force officials.
Earlier, raids were conducted at Mukherjee’s flat in the Belghoria area, where unaccounted cash worth around Rs 28 crore was found along with a large quantity of gold and silver.
The central agency had also allegedly seized cash worth over Rs 21 crore from another flat of Mukherjee in the Tollygunge area.
According to a report in News18, Arpita Mukherjee claimed ignorance about the presence of cash in her house. She reportedly broke down during interrogation and said that Chatterjee’s men had access to the apartment and it was probably they who deposited the exorbitant amount.
The value of gold jewellery is still being ascertained, according to ED sources.
The CBI, as directed by Calcutta high court, is probing the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and -D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools on the recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission.
The ED is looking into the money trail involved in the scam.
