The Enforcement Directorate has started a probe into three companies linked to Arpita Mukherjee, close aide of sacked Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee. Both have been accused, and are under investigation in connection with a teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal.
The agency is probing Symbiosis Merchants Private Limited, Sentry Engineering Private Limited, and Arpita Echhay Entertainment Private Limited. This comes after the agency recovered over Rs 50 crore of cash, and gold from her residences.
Mukherjee was appointed as the director of Symbiosis Merchants, a Kolkata-based firm incorporated on March 21, 2011. On paper, the firm has shown to be in the business of wholesale of a variety of goods. Her brother-in-law Kalyan Dhar was made director of the company on July 1, 2021.
She was appointed director of Sentry Engineering on November 9, 2011 The firm was incorporated in 2001, with an authorised share capital of Rs 1 crore. Dhar was also made the director of the firm in 2018. As of now they are the only two directors. On paper, this firm is involved in manufacturing of special purpose machinery.
Arpita Echhay was incorporated on October 29, 2014, with her as the director. Dhar was appointed as the director of the company in the same year as Sentry Engineering.
The agency raided four of Aprita’s houses till yesterday. In the first raid, the ED found Rs 21.90 crore in cash, Rs 56 lakh in foreign currency and gold worth Rs 76 lakh, amounting to a total seizure of Rs 23.22 crore. In the second raid, the ED found Rs 27.9 crore and Rs 4.3 crore worth of gold, weighing 5 kg. The cash was packed in bundles of 50 lakh for Rs 2,000 notes and 20 lakh for Rs 500 notes. The gold was recovered in three gold bricks of 1 kg each, six kangans of 500 gm each, a gold pen, and other jewellery.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government on Thursday removed Partha Chatterjee from the ministry with immediate effect. ''Partha Chatterjee, minister in charge, department of industry, commerce and enterprises, department of information technology and electronics, department of parliamentary affairs and department of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction, is hereby relieved of his duties as MIC of the aforesaid department with immediate effect,'' stated the official order.
(With inputs from Munish Pandey)
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