Two days after the Enforcement Directorat (ED) arrested senior Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the school-level recruitment scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee finally broke her silence on Monday warning her opponents that if they throw ink at her she has large quantities of tar in store for them.

In a blistering attack on those allegedly trying to tarnish her image, she said, “Had I not been in politics I would have chopped off their tongues”.

In what the critics called a bid to turn a “criminal and judicial” issue into a political one, Mamata said the Opposition was trying to malign her image and that of her party the Trinamool Congress though she would never allow any corrupt practices during her regime.

Chatterjee — considered number two in the Mamata Cabinet — and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee were arrested after `22.90 crore and a large number of documents pertaining to scores of properties were recovered from the residences of Mukherjee, a part time actress.

Meanwhile, a day after the Minister was admitted in hospital, AIIMS Bhubaneswar said, “Chatterjee is fit and does not need immediate hospitalisation.”

In an apparent bid to distance herself from the accused Minister, Mamata said, “If anyone is proven guilty then let him get life imprisonment.”

Mentioning that she had full faith in the judiciary “provided it is not influenced by a particular political party as has been happening in many cases”, Mamata said, “There has to be a time frame within which the truth and the court’s verdict must be out. If anyone is proven guilty, then he or she must be punished. The party, too, will take action. But, I condemn the malicious campaign against me.”

Stopping short of making a direct reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister asked questions on the “PM Cares Fund” and fugitive scamsters Mehul Chowksi and Nirav Modi whose connection, she said “with some leaders is known to one and all”.

She said showing enough decency she did not raise such questions that would embarrass many people.

Mamata was speaking in a Government programme where she distributed Banga Bibhushan awards to successful people from various walks of life.

Offering a brief testimony to the honest lifestyle that she led, a tired-looking Chief Minister said, “I get a pension of Rs 1 lakh from Parliament and Rs 2 lakh as the Chief Minister but I do not accept that money … I take care of my expenses by writing books --- some of which are best sellers and provide huge royalty --- and lending music to songs … I don’t need to take questionable means to earn money.”

Warning her political rivals against dragging her name in the scam Mamata said, “Some people are publishing my pictures with the woman in a bid to establish a connection … this is a bid to tarnish my image … but I warn them all if you throw ink at me I have large quantities of tar in store for you … these people who are maligning me should know that had I not been in politics I would have chopped of their tongues.”

She was referring to a video in which she was seen with the Minister and Mukherjee and where she was claiming to know the actress who had worked in Oriya films too.

Meanwhile, a day after the Bengal Government-run SSKM Hospital decided to hospitalise Chatterjee, the doctors of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, said he was fully fit save some chronic heart and kidney related ailments.

“We have conducted a thorough screening (of Chatterjee). He has some chronic diseases related to heart, kidney and thyroid he but does not need immediate hospitalisation,” AIIMS executive director Ashutosh Biswas said at Bhubaneshwar where the Minister was flown in on Monday morning following the orders of Calcutta High Court after the the Enforcement Directorate told the Court that he was using his influence to get a medical shield in order to evade interrogation.