Kolkata, Nov 21 (IANS) Arpita Mukherjee, a prime accused in the cash-for-school job case in West Bengal and close associate of former state education minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General, Partha Chatterjee, was on Thursday granted five-day parole because of the demise of her mother.

To recall, in July 2022, Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the school job case after the central agency officials recovered huge amounts of cash and gold from the twin residences registered in the name of Arpita Mukherjee.

At that time Arpita Mukherjee was also arrested by the ED officials

Since then she had been serving judicial custody like her mentor Partha Chatterjee.

In March this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed at a hearing in the matter at Calcutta High Court that Arpita Mukherjee and Partha Chatterjee were so close that the former minister even signed an undertaking to take the financial responsibility of the child which she wished to adopt.

The ED’s counsel presented this information in court after Partha Chatterjee’s counsel argued in the court that the onus of the cash and gold recovered from Arpita Mukherjee’s residences cannot be on his client and the relationship between the two was just like “an uncle and his niece.”

Incidentally, 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 that on the grounds that there had been attempts by the state administration to shield influential persons involved in the school job case, like Partha Chatterjee.

The matter has been referred back to the Division Bench headed by the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, who will now decide which new Bench will hear the matter.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India adjourned the hearing on a similar bail plea by Partha Chatterjee in a case registered by the ED in the school-job case.