KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been conducting simultaneous raids at 12 locations in Kolkata linked to Sabyasachi Dutta, the arrested former Trinamool Congress legislator and ex-Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in North 24 Parganas district.
It is learnt that the simultaneous raids and search operations since Friday morning are in relation to the recent recovery of 3.5 kilograms of gold from the residence and bank locker registered in the name of Dutta. At the same time, the police recovered gold purchase receipts with a value of Rs 76 crore.
Gold consignments were also recovered from the residence of Trinamool Congress leader Tina Bhowmik, who was known as an extremely close confidant of Dutta during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime.
The raid and search operations are being conducted to gather clues on whether the confiscated gold was purchased from money accumulated through extortion and corruption, the two main charges against Dutta.
Dutta has also been accused of possessing assets which were highly disproportionate to his income.
Earlier, the state police had seized (frozen) five bank accounts of Sabyasachi and his wife Indrani Dutta. According to the police, a total of Rs 3.70 crore has been seized in these five bank accounts, fixed deposits, and cash.
Dutta was arrested on June 9 morning by the state police after a marathon interrogation that started the previous night. His arrest then followed a written complaint filed by a businessman based in Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata, who accused Dutta of extorting money from him.
Apart from that, there were several other complaints in the past about his involvement in corruption, extortion and hooliganism in his locality. Later, as the investigating officials went deeper into the probe against Dutta, they found incriminating evidence against him.
Dutta, a two-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Rajarhat-Newtown Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas from 2011 to 2021, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.
In 2021, he contested as a BJP candidate from Bidhannagar Assembly constituency in the same district and was defeated by three-time former Trinamool Congress legislator and former West Bengal Fire Services Minister Sujit Bose.
Incidentally, Bose is also in judicial custody, and officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him last month on charges of involvement in the multi-crore cash-for-municipalities’ job case in the state.
After the 2021 Assembly election, the Trinamool Congress returned to power in West Bengal for a third consecutive term; Dutta left the BJP and joined the ruling party.
In the recently concluded Assembly polls, which marked the end of the 15-year-long Trinamool Congress regime in the state, Dutta had contested from Barasat Assembly constituency in the same district and was defeated.
