Kolkata: Even as ‘skeletons’ continue to pour out of cupboards and wardrobes, Partha Chatterjee has been axed from the West Bengal cabinet. Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials now believe that this heavyweight politician (pun unintended) will start spilling the beans about the role of others involved in the scam to recruit teachers in the state.

She gave no indication that any action was forthcoming against Partha Chatterjee

His aide, Arpita Mukherjee, has already started talking and told interrogators that she was treated merely as a ‘bank’ by Partha Chatterjee to hold on to cash and other valuables in lieu of favours.

“We are now looking into property owned by shell companies floated by Chatterjee and Mukherjee. Apart from houses and flats, we have received information of land in the Bantala Leather Complex area that was allegedly purchased by Ichhey Entertainment Pvt Ltd, one of the shell companies that we have come across. The valuation of this land is above Rs 20 crore. It was allegedly purchased from a family in Beliaghata. The valuation of property could alone go beyond Rs 50-60 crore,” an ED source said.

But, why did it take nearly six days for West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to relieve Partha Chatterjee of his ministerial berths?

Her decision came barely 24-hours after her address at the inaugural ceremony of a Metro coach manufacturing unit at Uttarpara, Hooghly, on Wednesday, where she questioned the ED’s tactics of carrying out the raids after the huge turnout at the July 21 Martys’ Day Rally in Kolkata.

During Wednesday’s event, Mamata put up a brave front and even forecast that the BJP-led NDA would get routed in the 2024 Parliamentary elections. She gave no indication that any action was forthcoming against Partha Chatterjee.

“She is under a lot of pressure. Mamata Banerjee realises that the cat is out of the bag and the common man no longer believes that the Trinamool Congress had no inkling of what Partha Chatterjee was up to. Ideally, she should have got rid of Chatterjee the moment he was arrested. But, she knew that he would start talking and other top leaders would come under the scanner. She was simply buying time to allow those leaders to set their houses in order before ousting Chatterjee. Her next move will be to say how nobody, including the secretary general of the party, is spared if he is corrupt. After all, there are some in the party who are not corrupt and we don’t support this,” a senior Trinamool leader and MLA said.