In a television panel debate, India Today Consulting Editor Jayanta Ghosal sought to defend West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by making a moving speech in which he stated that he is convinced that the CM was oblivious of the SSC scam under her minister Partha Chatterjee and the complicity of her Minister and party aides. Partha Chatterjee was sacked from the ministry and the party after ED recovered over Rs 50 in cash along with gold and jewellery from his ‘close aide’ Arpita Mukherjee, and it is believed that the illegal money is proceeds of the SSC recruitment scam in the education department when Chatterjee was the minister.
While talking to India Today anchor Rajdeep Sardesai during a panel discussion on the issue, Consulting Editor Jayanta Ghosal said, “I am completely convinced that Mamata Banerjee didn’t know.” Justifying his claim, he said, “Because I tried to understand, I was in Calcutta yesterday, I talked to her. She was so upset and she took the time to take action not because she was supporting Partha but because she was trying to understand what was happening,” Ghosal said.
Mamata Banerjee didn’t know who Arpita Mukherjee was: @jayanta_ghosal1, Consulting Editor
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) July 28, 2022
Either Mamata Banerjee was indulging in this corruption or she is so incompetent that she was ignorant of this kind of corruption: BJP’s @Shehzad_Ind#NewsToday | @sardesairajdeep pic.twitter.com/uCQiNbq89K
Ghosal further said that Mamata Banerjee was shocked when she saw the images of the cash recovered by ED. “She didn’t know who Arpita Mukherjee was. No one in Trinamool knows who Arpita is. Partha has a personal relationship with Arpita Mukherjee,” Jayanta Ghosal said.
Rebutting the claims made by Jayanta Ghosal, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that Mamata Banerjee was well aware of who Arpita Mukherjee was and even showed some photographs and videos of Arpita attending TMC functions. Shehzad further said, “Either Mamata Banerjee was indulging in this corruption or she is so incompetent that she was ignorant of this kind of corruption.”
The SSC scam
It is worth noting that the Enforcement Directorate has uncovered another major corruption case in West Bengal, involving the state’s Commerce and Industries Minister and Mamata Banerjee’s companion, Partha Chatterjee, and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee.
The federal agency has recovered even more than Rs 50 crores in cash and Rs 4.31 crores in gold from multiple locations linked to Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of arrested cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee, in raids conducted in connection with the ongoing investigation into the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam.
Partha Chatterjee served as the state’s education minister during the Mamata Banerjee government. Notably, on Monday (July 25), a special court remanded Trinamool Congress (TMC) Minister Partha Chatterjee and actress Arpita Mukherjee to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for ten days.
Arpita was arrested on July 23, this year, only hours after TMC Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested in the same case. While remanding the pair in the custody of the ED, the Court stated that the evidence presented to it by the central agency suggested that the offence was serious.
The reaction of Mamata Banerjee
Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, under whose nose the alleged multi-crore scam took place, has reacted to the involvement of her minister in the scam by stating ‘mistakes happen.’ Addressing a public gathering, the Trinamool Congress supremo further said that if found guilty, those who committed the mistake ‘should be subjected to punishment.’
Despite the seizure of an enormous amount of cash from the house of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Partha Chatterjee, TMC leader and minister in the Mamata government, the latter continued to call the action by the federal agency a political vendetta.
Addressing a programme of Kolkata-based firm Titagarh Wagons on July 27, Banerjee asserted that businessmen, along with Opposition leaders, were being “threatened by agencies at the behest of the ruling BJP” at the Centre.
