Trinamool Congress Minister and former Education Minister of the state Partha Chatterjee was on Monday flown to Bhubaneswar in an air ambulance for treatment.Chatterjee, was earlier today seen leaving the SSKM hospital in Kolkata in a wheelchair and taken in an ambulance to the airport. The minister who was arrested in connection with a teacher recruitment scam at government-sponsored and aided schools was accompanied by a doctor from SSKM Hospital and his advocate, as per Calcutta HC’s order.

Chatterjee, who was arrested by the ED on Saturday, complained of heart pain just hours after the ED remand and demanded “proper medical facilities” if ED’s custody is granted, Chatterjee’s lawyer Somnath Mukherjee had told the media persons in Kolkata. While ED prayed before the magistrate to allow Chatterjee to be taken to Command Hospital instead of the state-run SSKM. ED said that Chatterjee is a senior minister and his roots are deep in government hospitals, where he can be influential. However, the court ordered Chatterjee to be taken to SSKM Hospital.

Advertisement

The Court directed that the minister be produced before a special ED court in Kolkata through virtual mode at 4 pm on Monday. TMC, on the other hand, demanded a time-bound probe in the ED case against Chatterjee, asserting the party will not interfere politically if any leader has done anything wrong.
ED also produced the senior TMC leader’s associate Arpita Mukherjee before a court, which remanded her to one-day custody of the agency.

ED personnel raided several locations in the state on July 22 as part of their probe into the money trail involved in a teacher recruitment scam at government-sponsored and aided schools. Arpita Mukherjee was arrested on July 23, the arrest was made after ED recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from Mukherjee’s residence on Friday.

A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, the purpose and use of which are being ascertained, said the probe agency. Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam.