ED chargesheet says Arpita named Partha as owner of cash seized from her houses

Kolkata, Sep 20 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its first chargesheet filed in the teacher recruitment scam involving the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has claimed that accused Arpita Mukherjee has confessed before the agency that the cash and gold 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 ownership of the seized cash amounting to Rs 49.80 crore and gold valued at more than Rs 5 crore during interrogation on August 4, Arpita had admitted that so far she had repeatedly refused to disclose the real owner of the seized cash and gold. Later Arpita said 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 chargesheet.

The ED also said in the chargesheet that the annual premium amount of 31 life insurance policies held by Arpita, with Partha Chatterjee as nominee in most of them, amounted to Rs 1.5 crore.

The annual premium payments for all these policies, wherein Partha Chatterjee was referred to as Arpita's 'uncle', were made from the bank accounts of Chatterjee.

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