Arpita Mukherjee Hired Brother-In-Law As Director Of 3 Companies: Report

In the teacher recruitment scam, Arpita Mukherjee allegedly appointed her brother-in-law to head the three bogus companies. The central agency officials had been doubtful of the identity of Kalyan Dhar, the second director of these three entities until it was discovered that Mukherjee who is a close aide to the West Bengal minister, Partha Chatterjee, was the director of all three, as per reports.

Arpita Mukherjee has been in the news for the past week after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained her in Kolkata (ED) last Friday. Her lavish south Kolkata residence was raided last week, and the ED seized money from it that was allegedly the profits of kickbacks in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scandal, totaling Rs 280 million (about 3.5 million USD). Partha Chatterjee, the co-accused leader of the Trinamool Congress party and a state minister, had hired Mukherjee.

According to recent reports, Arpita Mukherjee allegedly made Kalyan Dhar the CEO of the three fake companies. Before learning that Mukherjee was the director of all three, the central agency officials had doubts about the identification of Kalyan Dhar, the second director of these three businesses (Symbiosis Merchants Private Limited, Sentry Engineering Private Limited, and Echhay Entertainment Private Limited).

ED eventually discovered that Dhar was Mukherjee's younger sister's husband. Dhar, however, claimed to the ED officers that he was unaware that his name had been included as the director of the three businesses.

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Arpita Mukherjee appointed Dhar as her personal driver for a salary of Rs 10,000 per month, which was then increased to Rs 18,000 per month, as Dhar informed central agencies. Additionally, Mukherjee's brother-in-law revealed that he frequently carried out odd chores for his wife's older sister, including buying and transporting stuff for her personal use to her home in South Kolkata's Diamond Park Complex.

According to a complaint the ED has previously received, the address of Echhay Entertainment is registered in the name of the cable television company owned by Dhar's younger brother. He also provided evidence supporting his claim, including a trade licence.

Who is Arpita Mukherjee?

As per reports, she grew up primarily in the middle-class neighbourhood of Belgharia in the North 24 Parganas district of Kolkata. Later, she relocated to the upscale Tollywood neighbourhood of the city and lived in an apartment in Diamond City, a luxurious high-rise apartment building in south Kolkata.

She describes herself as a model and an actor on social media. She began her modelling career in 2004 and, after some struggle, was given a small part in the Bengali movie Mama Bhagne in 2010. She has reportedly acted in several other Bengali, Tamil, and Oriya films.

For many public and social events, Mukherjee frequently travels with Partha Chatterjee. Politician Chatterjee formerly served as West Bengal's Minister of Education and is currently the Minister of Commerce and Industries. However, the ruling party's members have consistently denied any connection to Mukherjee since her detention.