Bengal school jobs scam accused Arpita Mukherjee granted bail by special PMLA court

KOLKATA: Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, gets bail on Monday by a special PMLA court. She was arrested by ED in 2022 by the Enforcement Directorate after heaps of cash and ornaments were recovered from her apartment in connection with the education recruitment cash for school job scam.

Arpita Mukherjee, a prime accused in the case was granted five-day parole following the death of her mother last Thursday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Mukherjee, who was a close associate of former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, who still in judicial custody. The duo were arrested on the same day on July 23, 2022. Since her arrest, Arpita had been serving judicial custody like her mentor Partha Chatterjee.

In July 2022, Chatterjee was arrested by the central agency in connection with the school job case after the ED recovered huge amounts of cash and gold from the twin residences registered in the name of Arpita Mukherjee.


Granting bail to Mukherjee, who was in judicial remand, the justice of special PMLA ED court at Bankshall Court directed her to furnish a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh with adequate sureties, half of which should be local.

On Wednesday a decision on the bail petition by Partha Chatterjee at Calcutta High Court in the cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remained pending as the two-judge Division Bench there reached a split verdict.

While Justice Arijit Bandyopadhyay favoured the granting of bail to Partha Chatterjee, the second judge Justice Apurba Sinha Roy opposed the bail on the grounds that attempts were made by the state administration to shield influential persons in the school job case.