After first night on blankets on floor, Partha gets cot and chair

Once one of the most powerful leaders in West Bengal and No. 3 in the Trinamool Congress government, Chatterjee was not accorded any special privileges, and kept in the high secure Poila Baish section of the jail, according to a senior jail official.

Poila Baish is the most-secure cell block in the jail, which is watched 24X7. It houses American Centre attack mastermind Aftab Ansari among others convicted for serious crimes, and inmates on death row.

Like others in the block, Chatterjee’s 6ft by 8ft cell has blankets on the floor for bed, a ceiling fan, a commode and a water filter. There is no furniture.

“Senior jail officials visited him (Chatterjee) on Saturday afternoon. Thereafter, late in the afternoon he was provided with an iron cot and a chair inside his cell… He is still having food prepared in jail, including roti, subzi and dal for dinner and rice, roti, subji and dal for lunch,” said a senior jail official.

“Chatterjee had asked for ‘chop-muri’ (puffed rice and fries). The puffed rice is prepared inside the jail along with the potato fries. On Sunday evening, it was served to him,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the jail officials got the commode inside Chatterjee’s cell repaired.

According to an official, Chatterjee is under watch 24/7 in the high security cell block in order to minimize his interaction with anyone, including convicts. Senior jailors have also been directed to visit his cell every hour.

The Alipur Women’s Central Correctional Home where his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, is housed is about five minutes’ drive away. “Mukherjee had been distraught since was brought and kept on crying and did not have dinner,” an official said on Saturday.

Partha 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 his aide Arpita 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.