Kolkata: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court on Wednesday said that Arpita Mukehrjee, once close confidant of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, cannot deny her responsibilities of the huge cash recovered from her twin residences in connection with the multi-crore school recruitment case as it rejected her bail plea.
It also extended her judicial custody till June 19.
The hearing in this matter took place on Monday, through the court then reserved the order.
During the hearing Arpita Mukherjee described Chatterjee, who is also in judicial custody now for his alleged involvement in the school recruitment case, as the mastermind of the scam where her residences were used to stock the proceeds of the scam.
However, from the order pronounced on Wednesday, it was clear that the judge had not accepted her argument on this count, but observed that from the different evidence, it has been proved that she was directly involved in the system and was quite aware of the huge cash stocked at her residence.
The judge observed that it is not acceptable that she was not aware of the huge cash and gold stocked at her residences and her counsel’s claim that his client was just a victim of conspiracy was not acceptable.
He also observed that the documents that the central agencies have placed against her in the court are serious in nature. As per his observation, her bail prayer cannot be granted just on the ground that the petitioner is a woman.
In July last year, the Enforcement Directorate recovered around Rs 50 crore from two of her residences, the first at Tollygunge area in south Kolkata and the second at Belgharia in the northern outskirts of Kolkata. Apart from cash, huge quantities of gold were also recovered.
–IANS