Enforcement Directorate quizzes Arpita Mukherjee, set to question Partha Chatterjee

 The two, who are in judicial custody in the same case, to be produced in court on Thursday

Arpita Mukherjee and Partha Chatterjee: File picture

TT SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |  17.08.22 : A team from the Enforcement Directorate questioned Arpita Mukherjee for around four hours inside the women’s correctional home in Alipore on Tuesday. The central agency is likely to meet  Partha Chatterjee inside Presidency Correctional Home on Wednesday morning, sources said.  

Mukherjee, from whose flats the central agency had allegedly seized Rs 49.8 crore, has been charged with money laundering in connection with the recruitment of teachers and other staff for government-aided schools.

A three-member team, including a woman officer, formally “interviewed” Mukherjee inside the jail on Tuesday. Jail officials said the ED team had the court’s permission to examine the accused in connection with the probe in one of their ongoing cases. 

Chatterjee and Mukherjee, who are in judicial custody in the same case, will be produced in court on Thursday.  According to the rule, the investigating agency needs to have permission from the court before meeting an accused remanded in judicial custody.

The “meeting” can happen in the presence of at least one official of the correctional home. 

“Any communication or meeting between the accused and any visitor, including officers of the investigating agency, has to be in the presence of an officer of the rank of jailor or deputy jailor,” said an official in the state correctional service.  

According to the rule, no visitor can enter the jail compound with any electronic device that can record any statement. 

Mukherjee’s lawyer Soham Bandopadhyay said: “My client has been cooperating with the investigating agency and will continue to do so.”  Sources in the central agency said they had sent a formal communication to the Presidency jail to allow them to meet Chatterjee on Wednesday morning.