KOLKATA: Until a few years back, she struggled hard to make a mark in the film and fashion industry, but Arpita Mukherjee is hogging headlines these days – albeit for all the wrong reasons.
There has been a renewed interest in life since India’s financial probe agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recovered piles of cash to the tune of more than Rs 21 crores from one of her properties in Kolkata on Friday evening.
Apart from the cash, the agency has also recovered jewelry worth lakhs of rupees and 20 mobile phones, all of which the ED suspects were the proceeds from the recruitment scam in the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board.
In a statement, the ED identified her as a “close associate” of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, who has been arrested and sent to two-day custody of the agency in the teachers’ recruitment scam. Mukherjee has also been arrested after hours of questioning.
She was the face of Partha’s Durga Puja organising committee called ‘Naktala Udayan Sangha’, people in the know said on the condition of anonymity.
Arpita owns several luxurious cars and flats in Kolkata and adjoining districts including in Birbhum’s Bolpur, the people cited above added.
But ‘close aide’ of a politician is not the sole identity she probably wants to have. Arpita’s social media profiles are filled with her sultry photos, flaunting her riches and the luxurious lifestyle.
On her Facebook account, she describes herself as “a multi-talented versatile actor, having worked in several films in Tollywood.”
Arpita started her career as a model and moved on to acting. She later opened studios of nail art.
She made her acting debut first in Bengali films, then to Odia film industry and later did some films in Tollywood. However, her luck did not favour her in the industry and she ended up doing some minor roles.
Later, she came close to Chatterjee and some other TMC leaders. In a video which is now going viral, TMC chairperson and chief minister Mamata Banerjee can be seen praising her on stage.