EXPLOSIVE SEIZURE LIST: Arpita’s 15 Diamond Tops, Entertainment Deeds, 27 Apple, Samsung Phones

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) inventory of items recovered from the aide of tainted Mamta cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee, now under the custody of the agency at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, includes ₹76 lakh jewellery items, 27 phone models of Apple, Samsung, Nokia and Blackberry and deeds of company agreements .

Arpita Mukherjee is a former actress, whose photographs and phone calls with Chatterjee in the teacher recruitment scam have led the ED on a trail of financial irregularities in the scam.

The recoveries were made from Mukherjee’s Diamond City South residence in Kolkata’s Tollygunj besides ₹21 crore in hard cash.

The memo, a copy of which has been accessed by The New Indian, reveals that ED had also seized nine deeds related to the companies floated by Mukherjee, who is also a shareholder director in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the 21 mobile phones recovered from Mukherjee are one of the world’s most expensive handsets from Apple – iPhone 13pro Max, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, Samsung Galaxy S21, Oppo F 15, and even vintage models like Blackberry 9780, Nokia TA 1010 among others.

The inventory also included diamond-embedded two gold necklaces, one locket and one bangle with a collective worth of ₹4,85,200. ED also seized 15 pairs of tops with diamonds and 22k gold with a total cost of ₹2,58,583. The agency also seized five pieces of top sets with diamonds with 18k gold with a total worth of ₹55,724.

According to the seizure memo, four out of nine sale deeds were registered in the name of Mukherjee while the other five sale deeds were for Echhay Entertainment Pvt Ltd.

Mukherjee is the director of Echhay Entertainment Pvt Ltd along with one Kalyan Dhar.

The ED arrested Chatterjee, who is the West Bengal Commerce and Industries minister on Saturday in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam.

Calcutta High Court on May 17 this year ordered a CBI investigation for the illegal appointments of non-teaching staff (Group C & D) and teaching staff for classes 9-12 by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.