Kolkata: Curious condo residents stunned as truck rolls in, takes away 15 trunks loaded with cash, gold

KOLKATA: When a blue mini-truck rolled into a condo in Tollygunge on Saturday afternoon and stopped at Tower 2, residents were taken aback to see 20 steel trunks in the vehicle’s carrier. They were sent by RBI, on ED’s request, apparently to take away the cash seized from Flat 1A.

The money, residents were told, belonged to Arpita Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee’s close aide. Both have been arrested by the ED. Officers had also procured multiple machines to count the seized notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denominations. They added up to over Rs 21 crore. The raid—part of the probe into the SSC scam—had begun 16 hours earlier on Friday.

Residents said they had been seeing Mukherjee for eight-nine years. “She walked on the compound daily. She had access to two more flats on the 18th floor in the same tower. We also knew she had access to VVIPs. But what stood out was she had hired two help to take care of her dogs. We do not know if she owned all of them,” said a resident of Tower 3. Another actor, who is a neighbour, declined to comment.

The news of the haul—Rs 21.2 crore in cash, Rs 79-lakh gold, Rs 54-lakh forex and 22 mobiles so far—drew scores of onlookers to the condo gates.

“People are coming to see the cash and the person who reportedly stashed it. It’s not the publicity we deserve, given some of the best minds of society live here,” said Anjan Kumar Biswas, a resident. “I have seen the media splash her social media photos. Some show her performing yoga on these lawns,” said another resident.

Mukherjee’s lawyer said he was not given the arrest memo when he went to meet his client on Saturday. “I sought an arrest memo and seizure list from ED but they refused. I can tell you the charges only after getting an FIR copy,” said Neeladri Bhattacharya.

Around 5.30pm, ED officers started bringing down the loaded trunks—15 out of the 20 were used. Around 15 minutes later, around 6pm, Mukherjee was brought to the gate to be taken to the ED office. Even after 22 hours of questioning, Mukherjee seemed defiant. She claimed she was innocent and was being framed by the BJP. “We hope truth prevails,” said a resident.
Watch ED seizes Rs 20-cr cash after raids on premises of Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee's aide Arpita Mukherjee