ED Airlifts Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee To AIIMS Bhubaneshwar After Chest Pain

Trinamool Congress leader and former West Bengal Education minister Partha Chatterjee, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), was on Monday flown to Bhubaneswar in an air ambulance after he complained of heart pain.

Earlier today, he was seen leaving the SSKM hospital in Kolkata in a wheelchair and taken in an ambulance to the airport.

Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in connection with a teacher recruitment scam at government-sponsored and aided schools.

He complained of heart pain hours after the ED remand and demanded "proper medical facilities" if ED's custody is granted, Chatterjee's lawyer Somnath Mukherjee told reporters in Kolkata.

While ED prayed before the magistrate to allow Chatterjee to be taken to Command Hospital instead of the state-run SSKM. ED said that Chatterjee is a senior minister and his roots are deep in government hospitals, where he can be influential. However, the court ordered Chatterjee to be taken to SSKM Hospital.

The Court directed that the minister be produced before a special ED court in Kolkata through virtual mode at 4 pm on Monday.

ED also produced Chatterjee’s associate Arpita Mukherjee before a court, which remanded her to one-day custody of the agency.

Meanwhile, the TMC demanded a time-bound probe in the case against Chatterjee, asserting the party will not interfere politically if any leader has done anything wrong.

On July 22, sleuths of ED raided several locations in the state as part of their probe into the money trail involved in recruitment scam.

Arpita Mukherjee was arrested on July 23, a day after ED recovered huge cash amounting to approximately Rs 20 crore from Mukherjee's residence.

A total of more than 20 mobile phones have also been recovered from the premises of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, the purpose and use of which are being ascertained, said the probe agency.

Besides cash, a number of other incriminating documents, records, details of dubious companies, electronic devices, foreign currency and gold has also been recovered from the various premises of the persons linked to the scam.

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