ED probes infusion of ill-gotten gains in real estate, entertainment industry

Kolkata: Ill gotten gains from the multi-crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) scam may have been invested by Partha Chatterjee and others in real estate and film production, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) source revealed.
The agency has got access to several documents that are now being scanned.
“The names of several people have cropped up. We are finding out more about their activities and connections with Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee. Many are them are real estate developers. We have also received some tip-offs regarding financing of several multi-storied complexes in south Kolkata by Partha Chatterjee. The former minister may have also used his clout to obtain land from original owners who may not have agreed to offers by developers,” an ED official said.
Among property documents seized, there are ownership deeds of several flats, some of them in the names of Chatterjee’s relatives and associates.
In most cases, the developers had ties with the suspended Trinamool Congress leader who wielded significant clout and was even considered No. 2 in the hierarchy after party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“We are also trying to ascertain activities of Echhay Entertainment Pvt Ltd, apparently owned by Arpita Mukherjee. Even Arpita Mukherjee’s mother has claimed that her daughter owned a production firm. Was money pumped into the film industry, both in West Bengal and neighbouring states? Infusion of black money in film production is not new. Even television serials may have been produced using this money,” the official added.
The ED source said that some in the film and television industry have been in contact with the agency over the last few days with complaints of how new sources of funding have deprived them of work. Those funding projects are insisting on new faces and even technical personnel who have been in the field for years are being ignored.
Even Arpita Mukherjee, a veritable nobody, landed a few roles in Tollywood.