Teams of the Enforcement Directorate carried out searches on six locations across the city on Tuesday in connection with the probe into alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and other staff in government-aided schools.
The places where the central agency raided included apartments in highrise buildings in two locations that could be directly or indirectly linked with Partha Chatterjee or Arpita Mukherjee and nail parlours that were run by Arpita, said ED officers.
“All the raids were conducted based on actionable information which we will share with the honourable court tomorrow (Wednesday),” said an ED officer at the CGO complex.
The first property that came under the ED radar on Tuesday morning was a flat in Block-VI of Fort Oasis — a highrise housing complex on Panditiya Road off Hazra Road in south Kolkata.
“The flat is in the name of one person who had purchased it from the developer in 2007. But we have specific information that Arpita Mukherjee was using the flat periodically. It had been lying vacant for the past few months,” said a source in the central agency.
At least two teams waited outside the apartment for more than nine hours but could not enter the flat as its owner allegedly did not turn up till late in the evening.
The Telegraph could not contact the owner independently to verify ED’s claims.
The central agency alerted the local police station that they could not conduct a search of the apartment because of the unavailability of the owner of the apartment, sources said.
The ED officers sealed three nail salons owned by Arpita — the first one at Kendua Main Road in Patuli on the city’s southern fringes, the second one on Lake View Road in the south and the third at Netaji Colony in Baranagar on the northern fringes.
A Trinamul Congress councillor whose name had allegedly emerged while probing the property details of the nail parlour in Patuli was questioned for more than three hours over the construction and ownership of the building, sources said.
One of the investigators said that the councillor had constructed the building and was asked about the details of the terms and conditions under which Arpita had purchased the building.
A few of the employees who were recruited by Arpita at the salons were also examined.
ED officers were seen carrying documents and files out of the three salons late on Tuesday evening.
A notice was pasted on the doors of the parlours mentioning that the premises had been sealed by the Enforcement Directorate and that all persons, including the owner, were prohibited to break open the seal.
Earlier in the day, another ED team visited two buildings at Madurdaha but spent less than 10 minutes at both places.