Arpita a ‘victim’ used by ‘kingpin’ Partha, court told

Kolkata: Arpita Mukherjee, arrested last year in connection with the SSC probe, on Monday claimed that she was a “victim” and Partha Chatterjee had used her for “his ill-gotten gains”, adding that the former education minister was “the kingpin supported by two lieutenants”. Vrinda Grover — a human rights lawyer known for the Ishrat Jahan case and the Bhima Koregaon case, among others — moved a bail plea for Mukherjee in the special PMLA court for the first time in 10 months. She argued that Mukherjee was a “victim of circumstance” and Chatterjee was the beneficial owner of the companies and properties seized by the central investigating agencies.“When a pawn reaches some place on the other side, it may become a queen. But the pawn remains a pawn,” Grover said. She termed Mukherjee as merely “a pawn in the game of chess” who reached a place “to become the queen” and was “made to replace the dead queen — Babli Chatterjee”.Continuing her chess analogy, she said: “But the pawn remained a pawn as the king was there. “There was no way she could refuse him. She was a single woman with a dependent mother in an unequal relationship with a politically powerful man.”“Partha Chatterjee was in a dominant position and was the kingpin of the racket. He was aided by two lieutenants, Manoj Jain and Kamal Bhutoria. The ED is yet to arrest them,” said Niladri Bhattacharya, another lawyer for Mukherjee.Grover submitted that Chatterjee’s statement clearly mentioned that he was in full control of Apa Utilities. She also referred to the statements of Mrinmay Malakar and R K Singh, directors of Ananta Texfab, who corroborated that Mukherjee had no role to play in the entire episode.The lawyer cited the statement of Manoj Kumar Kathotia, the former minister’s chartered accountant. “In his statement, Kathotia had admitted that he was working under the direction of Partha Chatterjee to recruit dummy directors. Mukherjee was also made a shareholder of the companies under the direction of Chatterjee,” she argued. ED lawyer Phiroze Edulji argued that Mukherjee could not be absolved of the charges as she “allowed her bank accounts to be used by Partha Chatterjee for depositing huge cash and subsequently buying properties and managing investments”. The case will come up for hearing again on Wednesday.
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