ED officials confirmed that the truck was carrying 20 steel trunks meant for carrying the valuables seized from Mukherjee’s residence…reports Asian Lite News
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which recovered huge cash and valuables from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, close aide of West Bengal Commerce & Industries Minister, Partha Chatterjee, had to take the help of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) regional office in Kolkata to ferry the cash and valuables to the agency’s office at CGO complex at Salt Lake in Kolkata.
Late on Saturday evening, after ED officials finished the counting and evaluating the estimated value of the cash and valuables, a truck from RBI’s regional office in Kolkata arrived at the posh Diamond City complex at Tollygunge in South Kolkata, which housed the flat of Mukherjee.
ED officials confirmed that the truck was carrying 20 steel trunks meant for carrying the valuables seized from Mukherjee’s residence. Later, 15 trunks that were loaded with the cash and valuables and the remaining five empty trunks were brought to the ED office at CGO complex.
The ED recovered Rs 21.20 crore cash in Indian currency of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations, gold ornaments of estimated market value of around Rs 90 lakhs, foreign currency of value of around Rs 60 lakhs, 20 high-end Apple iPhones, sale deeds of eight other flats and papers of multiple costly vehicles.
Meanwhile ED sleuths have taken Partha Chatterjee to AIIMS Bhubaneswar for medical examination on Monday morning.
He was taken to Kolkata Airport at around 8.30 a.m., where the air-ambulance was waiting, and at 9 a.m., the air-ambulance took off for Bhubaneswar.
Chatterjee is accompanied by ED officials, his counsel, Anindya Raut and a medical practitioner from state-run SSKM Medical |College & Hospital. Chatterjee was taken to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar following an order of Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri on late Sunday evening.
As per the single-judge bench order, medical check-up of Chatterjee should be complete at AIIMS Bhubaneswar by Monday morning and its report should be submitted at his bench by 3 p.m. on the same day.
Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee were supposed to be produced at a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court for hearing on Monday. On this count, the High Court bench directed the ED to ensure that Chatterjee is produced before the PMLA court virtually from Bhubaneswar.
Although Chatterjee’s counsel argued that his client be treated at the state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital, Justice Chaudhuri’s bench rejected the plea and also observed that there have been instances wherein influential ministers of the state government had taken ‘shelter’ at SSKM to avoid questioning by Central agencies.
