Bengal SSC Scam: Partha Chatterjee's ‘Aide’ Arpita Mukherjee Ran 12 Shell Companies, Says ED

On Saturday evening, a search operation was conducted and documents "supporting the existence of such companies" have been recovered from Mukherjee's Joka flat.

Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of West Bengal cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee, was brought to ESIC Medical College in Kolkata (Source: File photo/ANI)

New Delhi: Arpita Mukherjee, an aide of Minister Partha Chatterjee, in the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, had been running at least 12 shell companies, primarily for “financial manoeuvres”, a senior official of the Enforcement Directorate said on Monday, as reported by news agency PTI. On Saturday evening, a search operation was conducted and documents "supporting the existence of such companies" have been recovered from Mukherjee's Joka flat.

ED officials likewise suspect the involvement of a few lesser-known actors as well as individuals from various production houses in Odisha and Tamil Nadu, the authority said.

Mukherjee has also acted in a few Bengali and Oriya films.

"We have found documents from Arpita's Joka flat which indicated that she was operating several shell companies for financial manoeuvres. We have documents from 12 such companies. There could be involvement of people in Odisha and Tamil Nadu, who, we believe, moved the money," the official told PTI.

The ED is "keeping a close eye" on certain individuals of Odisha and Tamil Nadu and may before long grill them, the official explained.

"We are also trying to find out if Arpita has invested in any film production house. We have several documents, files, signed papers to suggest so," he added.

A city court on Sunday remanded Mukherjee in one-day ED custody. She was arrested after marathon questioning at her home, where crores of rupees in real money and different resources were supposedly recuperated by sleuths of the central agency.

(With PTI inputs)