A city court on Thursday extended the judicial remand of Arpita Mukherjee, a co-accused in the case that also involves former minister Partha Chatterjee, by 14 days after the Enforcement Directorate submitted that she had named several “others” allegedly involved in “money laundering activities”.
“After confronting her (Mukherjee) with incriminating documents, she revealed the role of other persons in the money laundering activities. Their role is being investigated and we are trying to find out whether they had providedany assistance to the accused(Chatterjee and Mukherjee),” the ED’s lawyer said.
A team of ED officers had questioned Mukherjee at Alipore Women’s Correctional Home on August 16 and questioned her for around four hours about the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and other staff for government-aided schools.
Sources in the agency said Mukherjee was asked 12 questions and she gave a nine-page statement.
In the court on Thursday, the agency’s lawyers submitted that apart from the seizures made from the flats of Mukherjee, the sleuths had seized incriminating documents from 11 other locations.
The documents, they said, pointed to the role of the accused in the crime.
The ED’s submission also mentioned that all the 31 LIC policies that were in name of Mukherjee were registered against the phone number of former minister Chatterjee, pointing at a nexus between the two.
The central agency sought a judicial remand of 14 days for Mukherjee.
Mukherjee’s lawyer submitted a prayer for a shorter remand, citing that in the last14 days she was in judicial custody, the ED had visited her only once.
“ED officers visited her only once during her last judicial remand for 14 days. SoI sought a shorter remand,” said Mukherjee’s lawyer Soham Bandopadhyay.
“My client is a simple person and is not influential like her co-accused. Hence, she cannot be called influential at all.”
The court after listening to both sides, extended Mukherjee’s judicial remand by another 14 days.
The court allowed the prayer of the central agency to interrogate Mukherjee inside the Alipore women’sjail.