The Trinamool Congress is furious at the Enforcement Directorate for mentioning Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s name in the arrest memo of her senior Cabinet colleague and TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee.
The ED arrest memo referred to four calls made by Chatterjee between 2 am and 9 am on Sunday during when he was being grilled by the investigators. According to sources the ED officials asked him whether he wanted to contact any friend or relative — as per the CrPC — to which he tried to call up the Chief Minister in the dead of night.
Even Chatterjee later said that he had tried to contact Banerjee but all his calls were went unanswered.
The Opposition parties immediately wondered why Chatterjee who had a married daughter would not call her up and instead make phone calls to the Chief Minister.
According to the arrest memo he made his first call after his arrest at around 1.55 am … then he called up at 2.33 am. Then again he called up at 3.37 am and subsequently again tried to contact her at 9.35 am.
“He called her but she didn't take his call,” the ED document place before the court said. Reacting sharply to the “ED’s mischievous ploys to malign the Chief Minister” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said “there was no need to refer about it … it has been simply done with political motive … Partha Chatterjee was simply induced to call the Chief Minister.”
However, another senior minister Firhad Hakim said “normally the agencies take away your phone … then how Partha Chatterjee could call up the Chief Minister … this is mischievous propaganda.”
Meanwhile, in another development the ED on Monday told the court that it could be a Rs 120 crore scam and that they had recovered three diaries from the residence of Arpita which could yield a number of information.
The ED sources also said that Arpita had worked in Tamil movies during which she had established contacts with six heroines in those movies. All those actresses could be questioned by the agencies sources said adding a lot of scam money could have gone into Tamil and Odiya movies through these actresses.
The ED sources also said that they had stumbled upon properties, resorts, bungalows in tourist spots of Shantiniketan,, Kolkata and other places.