KOLKATA: A team from Salboni police station in West Midnapore carried out a midnight raid at the Kalighat Road residence of Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata on Saturday in search of his secretary, Sumit Roy.
The development comes less than 12 hours after Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the police were implicating him in multiple cases following the change in power in West Bengal.
The raid was conducted in presence of Abhishek and Mamata Banerjee, party supremo and former West Bengal Chief Minister.
Investigating officers from Salboni police station, assisted by personnel from Bhabanipur and Kalighat police stations, left Abhishek Banerjee's residence in Patuapara around 8 am after conducting a search operation that began in the early hours of the day.
Sumit Roy, a long-time trusted secretary of Abhishek, number two in the party after Mamata, was not found there during the search operation.
According to sources, Salboni police were looking for Sumit for the past few days in connection with a case involving alleged transfers of crores of rupees to his bank account.
Acting on a complaint related to an alleged land fraud case in the Kharagpur area of West Midnapore district, the police conducted an inquiry as part of their investigation into the matter.
Salboni police arrested Sujoy Hazra, former Trinamool Congress MLA, and interrogated him few days ago.
Following investigations, police came to know that huge amount of money in crores of rupees have been transferred to Sumit’s bank account from Sujoy’s account.
After tracking Sumit’s mobile tower location, investigating police officials came to know he has been staying at his boss Abhishek’s residence on Kalighat Road and rushed to the spot around 2.30 am today.
Police forces from Kalighat and Bhabanipore were also deployed on the spot.
Central forces were also found cordoning off Abhishek’s residential complex as soon as the investigating officials carried out the search operations.
Police were initially unable to enter the house as the gate was locked from inside. They waited outside for nearly four hours after arriving around 2.20 am and eventually managed to enter by cutting open the lock with a gas cutter, sources said.
The Trinamool Congress general secretary was on the spot and later Mamata came from her nearby Harish Chatterjee Street after she was informed.
While entering into the house, Mamata was heard reportedly saying, “What’s going on here”.
Police did not seize anything during the search. However, sources said investigators suspect that Sumit may have escaped before they could enter the residence, as the gate remained locked and police were unable to gain access for several hours.
Police left the spot around 8 am and continuing raids at several other places in search of Sumit.
On the other hand, the Enforcement Directed (ED) is also conducting raids at different places, including Trinamool Congress MLA cum strongman Madan Mitra’s residence at Kamarhati and Bhabanipur in connection with alleged Municipal service recruitment scam in the state.
