KOLKATA: Police seized cash amounting to more than Rs 1.02 crore from a Trinamool Congress office in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Tuesday night.
The police recovered Rs 1,02,79,000 during a search operation at the Trinamool Congress office in Sarisha, under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency represented by party MP and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
Abhishek Majumder, superintendent of police of the Diamond Harbour police district, said on Wednesday, “Police recovered the money after interrogating Sumit Roy, personal assistant (PA) to Abhishek Banerjee.”
Sumit, a close aide of Abhishek Banerjee, the national secretary of the Trinamool Congress belonging to the Mamata Banerjee faction, was arrested on charges of allegedly forcibly grabbing government land in Salboni in Paschim Medinipur district and stealing soil in the Asuti police station area of South 24 Parganas.
Police took Sumit into custody for questioning in connection with the soil theft case.
“We got some clues after interrogating Sumit for long hours and then conducted a search operation at the Trinamool Congress party office at Sarisha, where we seized the hard cash of Rs 1,02,79,000 on the spot,” Majumder said.
He could not divulge any specific information about who used to monitor the party office.
When asked by reporters, the superintendent of police said, “It was a Trinamool Congress party office, but we will have to find out exactly who used to run the office.”
The seizure of such a huge amount of cash from an office of the former ruling party in West Bengal has triggered a serious controversy, causing embarrassment to the Mamata Banerjee camp, particularly at a time when the party is grappling with an unprecedented political crisis after suffering a humiliating defeat to the BJP in the Assembly elections in the state.
Police are investigating to ascertain the source of the money.
Sources said a complaint regarding the sale of soil from government and private land at Kalitala at high prices had been lodged with the Asuti police station. Sumit and several others were allegedly involved in the case.
Requesting anonymity, the sources also said that a Trinamool MLA from South 24 Parganas district used to run the Sarisha party office. The MLA had close political ties with Sumit.
A family member of the MLA is reportedly an employee of a private medical college hospital in the district, and Abhishek Banerjee had also inaugurated a new campus of the teaching hospital.
The Trinamool legislator and Sumit had close links with the owner of the private medical college, who had become very influential during the Trinamool Congress regime in the state.