From a little known actor, Arpita Mukherjee is now a name that hold strong with Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee, who is allegedly involved in West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) teacher recruitment scam. From a model actor to the glories of an actor and film producer, the ED recovered Rs 20 crore from her house, the money alleged to be given in bribes in the recruitment scandal.
ARPITA MUKHERJEE, ACTOR AND MODELLING
Mukherjee began a career in modelling in around 2004. Over the years, she opened three nail salons in Patuli, on Lake View Road and in Baranagar. While working on her modelling career, she began getting small roles in Bengali films. In 2019, she replaced actor Rituparna Sengupta as the poster girl for Naktala Udayan Sangha, patronized by Partha Chatterjee.
She hailed from a middle-class family in Belghoria in northern suburbs of Kolkata. She is known to have married a businessman from Jhargram but not much is known about the marriage as she returned to Kolkata.
ARPITA MUKHERJEE’S CONNECTION WITH TMC
ED said that Mukherjee is a close aide of West Bengal Minister Partha Chaterjee.
It is said that Mukherjee was also the face of advertising campaigns for Partha Chatterjee’s Durga Puja committee and has acted for few Bengali films.
Pictures that went viral, however, showed Arpita Mukherjee sharing the stage with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Bakshi, TMC MP and the party’s state president, at a program organised in 2019 by a puja committee in south Kolkata patronised by Chatterjee.
The ED has stated that four high-end cars of Arpita Mukherjee are now missing. These cars were the party venue of Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee, ED officials said. Partha Chatterjee is reported to have booked two new cars before being arrested in the SSC scam, ED revealed. Apart from the gold and money dug out from Arpita’s flat, it is reported that sex toys have also been dug out from her flat. The ED has so far seized eight bank accounts of suspicious companies run by Arpita Mukherjee.
Meanwhile, Arpita Mukherjee has disclosed names of 14 people in the West Bengal cash scam case, sources in the Enforcement Directorate informed on Saturday. The ED arrested the actress on July 23, a day after Rs 20 crore in cash was recovered from her Kolkata residence. The total value of recovery crossed Rs 50 crores after the recent raids at her Belgharia residence.
