Who are Arpita Mukherjee and Manik Bhattacharya, aides of arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee?-The investigation into the teacher recruitment scam has put the associates of Partha Chatterjee under the scanner. While Arpita Mukherjee, who belongs to the minister’s Durga Puja committee, is in custody till August 3, Manik Bhattacharya, former head of the Board of Primary Education, has been summoned for questioning.
 |
| IMAGE CREDIT-https://biographygist.com/ |
Who are Arpita Mukherjee and Manik Bhattacharya, aides of arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee?
The investigation into the teacher recruitment scam has put the associates of Partha Chatterjee under the scanner. While Arpita Mukherjee, who belongs to the minister’s Durga Puja committee, is in custody till August 3, Manik Bhattacharya, former head of the Board of Primary Education, has been summoned for questioning.
The noose is getting tighter at this time regarding West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee.
He was discharged after being treated at the AIMS in Bhubaneswar, from where he was taken by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials to the ED’s office as ordered by the Calcutta High Court, taking the minister to the agency’s office in the CGO premises in Salt Lake. Was visited and questioned for hours at the State School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam started. A special ED court on Monday sent Chatterjee to ED custody till August 3 on the central agency’s plea for interrogation to unearth the alleged money involved in the recruitment scam.
His aide Arpita Mukherjee, where the raids were conducted and officials found cash worth Rs 21 crore, has also been sent to ED custody till August 3.Cash worth Rs 41 crore has been recovered so far in the raid that was killed at another hideout of his yesterday.
The probe is unearthing details related to the scam against the senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and the ‘right hand’ of Mamata Banerjee and those around her.
The agency has summoned TMC MLA and former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) chairman Manik Bhattacharya for questioning in connection with the alleged irregularities.
We take a closer look at the various associates of Partha Chatterjee who are now under investigation.
Arpita Mukherjee
On 23 July, Arpita Mukherjee – little known among the people – became a prominent name when ED officials raided her residence and recovered over Rs 21 crore in cash from there.
Officials also seized over 50 lakh foreign currency, 20 mobile phones, and a suit of incriminating documents in cash from Mukherjee’s flat in South Kolkata’s Tollygunge.
According to the investigating officers, this amount is likely to be received from the West Bengal School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Elementary Education in the recruitment scam.
Arpita Mukherjee, an actress who has appeared in small roles in a few Bengali, Oriya, and Tamil-language films, has been revealed by ED officials as a “close associate” of Partha Chatterjee. Arpita wrote in her Facebook bio, “A multi-talented versatile actress, who has worked in many films in Tollywood.”
Reports say that she met Chatterjee about 10 years ago through her Durga Puja committee called the Nakatala Udayana Sangha, one of the largest Durga Puja committees in Kolkata.
In fact, in recent years, she has been the face of the promotional campaigns of Nakatala Udayana Sangha in recent years. Her picture has been widely featured in the advertisements of Chatterjee’s committee during Durga Puja.
Videos from 2020 on social media show him sharing the stage with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Partha Chatterjee’s Nakatla Udayan Sangha.
In a photograph shared on Twitter by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Mukherjee is also attending TMC’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally.
Manik Bhattacharya
ED has summoned Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya in the investigation of the illegal recruitment of teachers.
Bhattacharya joined TMC in 2021 and won from Palashipara in the Nadia district. Prior to this, he was the chairman of the West Bengal Board of Elementary Education until the High Court ordered him to step down.
His summons came after ED officials searched his house for eight hours last Saturday.
A report in The Indian Express said Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had held Bhattacharya responsible for illegality in the appointment of at least 269 teachers in state government-sponsored or aided primary schools.
Bodyguard under investigation
An investigation into irregularities in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam has also revealed that Partha Chatterjee had helped 10 relatives of his bodyguard get school jobs.
As per reports, a man named Vishwambhar Mandal used to work as a bodyguard of the TMC minister.
Mandal, a resident of the Chandipur area of East Medinipur district, is accused of using his links with Partha Chatterjee to get jobs for his brothers and cousins.
Mandal’s brothers, Bangshagopal and Devgopal, and their eight cousins had allegedly secured jobs in various schools in East Medinipur using ‘concocted and fabricated papers’.
TMC regional leader Bangshagopal, told News18, “All this politics is an act of revenge. They hate him. We all got employment through proper channels.”
When asked how all of them got the job at the same time, he reiterated that it was all politically motivated and there was no evidence against him to prove him guilty.
With input from agencies
SOURCESS:ONLINE MEDIA REPORTS