CM’s move comes within hours of Arpita telling ED that all wealth belonged to Min
In an apparent damage control exercise, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday removed Partha Chatterjee as a Minister and from all posts of Trinamool Congress five days after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the school-level job scam.
The Chief Minister’s decision comes within hours of Arpita Mukherjee — a close associate of Chatterjee from whose apartments huge cash, jewellery, bank and property instruments worth crores was recovered by the ED — telling the investigators that all the properties belonged to the Minister.
Soon after a Cabinet meeting, Mamata announced the removal of Chatterjee — the number two person in the Bengal Ministry — saying, “I have relieved Partha of all his charges,” till his name is cleared from all accusations.
“The Trinamool Congress is strict about its ideology … we run the party with great hardship,” the Chief Minister said.
A former Education Minister, Chatterjee, had been in charge of Commerce and Industries, Parliamentary Affairs and Information Technology portfolios. The CM would retain all the Departments with her for now.
Chatterjee, a former corporate top boss who left his job before the Singur movement to join the Trinamool Congress, was also removed from all his party posts, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said.
“The TMC disciplinary committee has decided to remove Chatterjee from all the party posts … he was the party secretary general, a national vice president and member of national executive as also a member of the party disciplinary committee … he has also been suspended from the party till he is exonerated by the judiciary … and the onus to prove innocence completely lies with him … and as the citizen of this country he has every right to fight his case in the court,” said Abhishek at the end of a party disciplinary committee meeting.
Besides incriminating documents, cash worth `50 crore and property deeds of 32 bungalows, apartments and lands both in Kolkata and districts have been recovered from two houses of Mukherjee, a close associate of the former Minister.
The ED also recovered about 8 kg of gold — in the form of bars, biscuits, jewellery and statuette — from two apartments of Mukherjee apart from bank instruments and property deeds worth crores.
Officials quoting Mukherjee said she was not the owner of the property seized and that all that had been recovered by the ED belonged to the Minister.
She is known to have told his interrogators that Chatterjee often sent his men to her apartments with bags which were kept inside a particular room not be entered by anyone. Not even Mukherjee was allowed to enter these rooms, she is known to have told the ED officials, adding only the Minister would enter these rooms when he came to the apartments.
Meanwhile, soon after sacking its scam-tainted Chatterjee, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Enforcement Directorate and its handlers in Delhi wondering why only Opposition leaders were singled out in cases of corruption and the BJP politicians were spared by the Enforcement Directorate.
“We are not defending Chatterjee as the party has already removed him from all the posts and the Chief Minister has sacked him from the Cabinet ... because the Trinamool Congress tolerates no corruption … but it has to be clarified by the BJP as to why only the TMC leaders are singled out and when they join the BJP they are spared,” party national general secretary Abhisek said.
When asked to comment on BJP seeking resignation of Mamata, Abhisek said, “They are referring to a photograph where the Chief Minister was seen with Mukherjee. As the Chief Minister she has to attend a number of programmes and is it possible to find out everyone’s credentials,” wondering “why do not they first ask for the resignation of the Prime Minister who was seen with Mehul Chowksi? Why don’t they ask for the resignation of Nirmala Sitaraman during whose time Nirav Modi fled? Why don’t they arrest or ask for the resignation of Shivraj Singh Chauhan during whose reign the Vyapam scam took place.”