A day after the arrest of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee, the TMC on Sunday, 24 July, demanded a time-bound investigation in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against the minister, asserting that the party will not interfere politically if any leader has done anything wrong.
Meanwhile, the ED on Sunday moved the Calcutta High Court against the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court order on Chatterjee’s admission at SSKM Hospital.
As per Chatterjee's counsel Ayan Poddar, the central agency sought to shift him to AIIMS Delhi, Bhubaneswar, or Kalyani for treatment. However, the court reserved the final order on the matter.
ED personnel had on Friday, 22 July, carried out raids at various places in Bengal as part of their probe into the money trail in a teacher recruitment scam at government-sponsored and government-aided schools.
At least Rs 20 crore in cash, along with other items, was recovered from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee.
TMC Denies Links With Mukherjee
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the party has no connection with the woman from whose possession a huge amount of cash was recovered, news agency PTI reported.
"The party demands time-bound investigation in the case," he said, maintaining that investigations by central agencies in some cases have been going on for many years.
The CBI has been investigating the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case since 2014, while the Narada tapes case, which unfolded ahead of the 2016 elections, is also yet to reach any conclusion.
"Law will take its own course; the Trinamool Congress will not interfere, however big a leader gets involved in it," Ghosh said.
Further, on Sunday, Arpita Mukherjee, left ESI hospital in Kolkata with ED officials and was produced before the Bankshall court.
Read our explainer on TMC’s Partha Chatterjee and the ED case over the recruitment of teachers.
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)