KOLKATA: An FIR has been lodged against West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, his brother Soumendu Adhikari and two others, for allegedly stealing relief materials meant for those displaced by Cyclone Yaas.
In the complaint filed at the Contai police station in East Midnapore, Ratnadeep Manna, a member of the Kanthi Municipal Administrative Board, alleged that some of the items meant for cyclone relief were stolen with the help of central force personnel assigned for Suvendu’s security.
“On May 29, around 12.30 pm, central force personnel came to a godown in Contai municipality with a small truck. With the help of two employees of the civic body, Himangshu Manna and Pratap Dey, they loaded the tarpaulin sheets worth D1 lakh, given by the state government as relief materials for cyclone victims, onto the truck and decamped,” Manna wrote in his complaint.
“I and another member of the board of administrators questioned Himangshu and Pratap. The two fumbled and admitted that they committed the crime on the direction of Suvendu and Soumendu," Manna alleged in the First Information Report.
Based on the complaint, the police registered a case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 379 (theft), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 448 (trespassing) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 51/53 of Disaster Management Act, 2005, which deals with the misappropriation of goods meant for relief. Suvendu or Soumendu could be contacted for their reaction.