Partha Chattterjee spent a tough first night at the Presidency Central Correctional Home's high-security block on Friday, with American Centre attack mastermind Aftab Ansari among his fellow inmates, a ceiling fan against the heat, and blankets for mattress. Jail officials said a despondent Chatterjee resisted being taken inside the jail at first, and wanted an air-conditioned room. When that didn't materialise, he reportedly sat for a long time on the commode of the toilet inside his cell till it broke. He then finally lay on the blanket on the floor. On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate Special Court in Kolkata sent Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee to 14 days' judicial custody. While Chatterjee was brought to the Presidency Central Correctional Home, Mukherjee was taken to Alipur Women's Correctional Home. “He (Chatterjee) did not want to go inside the jail at first. It took us an hour to convince him. Immediately, he demanded an air-conditioned room. No one paid any heed. He was searched according to rules and then taken to the Poils Baish (1-22) cell block. He was put in Cell No. 2,” a senior jail official jail. Poila Baish is the most-secure cell block in the jail, watched 24X7. It houses, apart from Ansari, those convicted for serious crimes, and inmates on death row. The senior jail official said Chatterjee, once one of the most powerful leaders in West Bengal and No. 3 in the Trinamool Congress government, has not been accorded any special privileges. “Like others in the block, Chatterjee's cell has blankets on the floor for bed, a ceiling fan, a commode and a water filter. There is no furniture. After entering the cell, Chatterjee put the lid of the commode down and sat on it. He spent most of the night there, often falling asleep on it. However, after a few hours, the lid broke. Chatterjee then sat on the blanket bed on the floor. The commode was later repaired,” the official said. About his meals, the official said he had asked for chapatis and said no to rice. “He was given chapatis, sabzi and dal for dinner. He ate that sitting on the commode.” He has his medicines with him in the cell. Another official said Chatterjee had been placed in the high-security facility to minimise his interaction with anyone, including other convicts. “Senior jailors have been directed to visit his cell every hour. Officials have also been asked to keep communication with him to a minimum.” While visibly shaken when he came, the former minister appeared to have calmed down by Saturday morning, sources said, and had tea and biscuits. The Alipur Women’s Central Correctional Home where Mukherjee is housed is about five minutes' drive away. An official said Mukherjee had been distraught since was brought. “She kept on crying and did not have dinner. This morning she had tea and biscuits.” Chatterjee, who has held portfolios like education and industries in the West Bengal government and was the TMC secretary general, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 23 in connection with a school jobs scam case. The ED claims to have recovered more than Rs 50 crore in cash, among other assets, from properties linked to Mukherjee, and allegedly connected to him. The TMC government has stripped Chatterjee of all his ministerial portfolios. He has also been suspended from the party.
