Officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are trying to get details of the emails “sent” from Arpita Mukherjee’s e-mail account and identify some of her frequently used email addresses in their efforts to find the money trail, sources in the central investigating agency said.
Identities of the mail recipients will help pinpoint some of those who were in regular contact with Arpita, described by the ED as a close associate of now arrested former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee.
This will give an idea of those who may have helped in parking the proceeds of crime, investigators from the central agency said.
Arpita has been in ED’scustody since her arrest from her Tollygunge flat on July 23. She will be produced before the court on August 3 along with Chatterjee.
The two have been linked to alleged corruption in school recruitments during Chatterjee’s stint as the education minister.
“At least two companies with Arpita as a director have an email ID — arpmymail@gmail.com. There is at least one more company where Arpita is not among the directors but has the same email id in its contact details,” said a senior officer.
“We want to know about the details of some of the emails that were sent from this email ID.”
Sources in the ED said they were trying to know more about companies or websites where this email ID has been used for contact details.
The ED will contact Google to provide necessary technical support, including Google analytics in tracing details of some of the emails sent from this email-id, officers said.
“Since companies have to submit balance sheets, it is obvious that the proceeds of crime will never get reflected in these statements. Our efforts are now to find out individuals or accounts where the money was possibly parked,” the officers said.
The ED has said it has found several crores in atleast eight of Arpita’s bank accounts. Arpita has not been able to specify the source of this income so far, officers said.
One of Arpita’s drivers, Pranab Bhattacharya, is said to have told investigators that she would often get dropped at Chatterjee’s Naktala house and either ask him to leave or wait.
Officers said they were trying to find out who had helped Arpita set up some of these companies and why she would frequent the minister’s house.