KOLKATA: Sacked Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee's aide Arpita Mukherjee told the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday she had no idea of the quantum of money and valuables stashed away in two of her Kolkata apartments, including Wednesday's Rs 27.9-crore haul that needed 13 hours to count, as Chatterjee would never allow her to enter the "locked rooms".
A bedroom and an attached washroom of Arpita's flat at Club Town Heights in Belghoria yielded the cash stash and Rs 4.3 crore worth of jewellery that the ED seized during the latest raid, which came six days after the agency seized Rs 21.9 crore, Rs 54 lakh in foreign currency and gold worth Rs 74 lakh from the model-actor's flat in south Kolkata's Tollygunge.
Chatterjee alone would enter the locked rooms whenever he visited the two flats, Arpita told interrogators. Officials said she repeatedly broke down and pleaded innocence when they asked her to disclose other assets she owned.
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At Club Town Heights, Arpita owns two flats and is listed in the notice board as a defaulter in payment of maintenance dues totalling Rs 11,000.
Officials said once they broke into the flat 8A and broke open the bedroom lock, bundles of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 in sealed envelopes, plastic packets and gunny bags tumbled out of the cupboard. ED sources said cash stacks were also found in the loft of the attached washroom.
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