Rs 28 crore cash and 6 kg of gold were recovered from Partha Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee’s house

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday seized Rs 27.90 crore in cash and about 6 kg of gold from the second flat of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee, who the probe agency has arrested over his alleged involvement in a school jobs scam.

“Bundles of cash were retrieved from a shelf while checking Arpita’s flat located in Belgharia Town Club in Kolkata. It took several hours to calculate the number of notes with the help of bank officials and counting machines,” an ED official reported. The counting process went on till about 5.30 am on Thursday.

The flat was found with cash worth Rs 27.9 crore, the Rs 2,000 notes were packed into bundles of Rs 50 lakh each and Rs 500 notes were packed into bundles of Rs 20 lakh each, gold and jewellery worth Rs 4.31 crore that included three gold bricks of 1 kg each, 6 Bangles of 500 gram each among other jewellery and one gold pen.

Arpita Mukherjee is already in the custody of ED and is being interrogated over her involvement in the case. At least four counting machines were used to count the cash. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh called for the expulsion of Partha Chatterjee from the party and the ministry. “Partha Chatterjee should be immediately removed from ministry and all-party posts.”