Arpita Mukherjee crying outside the hospital in Kolkata.
Former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee's aide Arpita Mukherjee wailed, protested, and refused to get out of the car before she was forcibly taken inside a hospital in Kolkata on Friday for a court-mandated checkup.
Actor-Instagrammer Arpita Mukherjee and the since-suspended Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee — arrested on July 23 for a job scam in the education department — are supposed to undergo checkups every 48 hours as per court orders.
Officials from the Enforcement Directorate had brought them to ESI Hospital in Joka. At first, Ms Mukherjee did not want to leave the car. She cried, flapping her arms and jostling with the security officials who wanted her to get out. When she was forced to get out, she sat on the ground. Security personnel were seen trying to convince her to walk in and then pulling her. Eventually she was forcibly taken in, on a wheelchair, still crying.
Partha Chatterjee was also on a wheelchair but was taken in before Ms Mukherjee. "I am a victim of conspiracy," he said while going in.
Mr Chatterjee, once close to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee but now an embarrassment for her, was yesterday sacked as a minister and removed from all posts in the Trinamool Congress as evidence of corruption stacked up against him. He is accused of taking bribes for the recruitment of teachers and staff in state-run schools in 2016, when he was Education Minister.
Arpita Mukherjee was active in Bengali and Odia films between 2008 and 2014. Originally from a middle-class family in Belghoria, she was a model since her college days.
Sources said the ED is now looking for four cars owned by Ms Mukherjee after searches at her flats in Kolkata yielded Rs 50 crore in cash. The cars — an Audi A4, a Honda City, a Honda CRV, and a Mercedes — are loaded with cash, sources in the agency said. These are besides a white Mercedes seized by the ED during Ms Mukherjee's arrest, sources said. The probe agency is scanning CCTV footage and conducting multiple raids to locate the vehicles.
Ms Mukherjee owns several flats for which sale deeds have been found by the ED. These include two flats in Clubtown Heights in Belgharia area of Kolkata.
In the raid conducted at one of these flats on Thursday morning, the ED seized nearly Rs 30 crore in cash and five kilograms of gold ornaments. No recovery was made from the second flat, said the officials of the agency.
Last Friday, the agency officials had seized Rs 21 crore in cash and gold bars worth Rs 2 crore from another flat owned by Ms Mukherjee in Kolkata's Tollygunge.