Woman hurls shoes at Partha Chatterjee, says it's anger of lakhs

A woman from West Bengal's Amtala area on Tuesday made an attempt to throw her shoes at suspended Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee when the latter was being escorted out of a hospital in Kolkata by Enforcement Directorate officials.

However, the footwear flung by the woman missed Chatterjee.

The middle-aged woman, Shubra Ghorui, is said to have harboured anger against Chatterjee after the seizure of around Rs 50 crore in cash, along with jewellery, by the Enforcement Directorate from two apartments of Arpita Mukherjee, a close associate of the suspended TMC leader.

"I have come here to hit (Partha) Chatterjee with my shoes. I cannot think that he has built apartment after apartment, and accumulated so much cash when people are roaming on the roads without any job. After cheating people, he is travelling in AC cars. He must be dragged with a rope. I will walk back home barefoot," said Ghouri.

"It is not only my anger but that of lakhs and lakhs of people of West Bengal," she told reporters.

The veteran leader, who has been relieved of his ministerial responsibilities, was then whisked away in a vehicle from the hospital premises by ED security personnel.

"I would have been very happy if the shoes had hit him. I will not take the shoes back," the woman stated.

Both Chatterjee and Mukherjee were arrested by the ED on July 23 in connection with its probe into the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam.

The arrested former TMC leader was on Tuesday taken by the ED officials to the ESI Hospital in Joka for a medical check-up and police had put up tight security arrangements inside the premises.