West Bengal: FIR against Bharati Ghosh, four aides for looting trader

Kolkata: Former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh, who has been facing a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) over the recovery of massive wealth from her residence and others, has landed in more trouble after a district court ordered an FIR against her and her four aides on Wednesday for looting Rs 45 lakhs in cash from a cow trader.

The chief judicial magistrate of the Midnapore court in West Midnapore directed the registration of the FIR at the Kharagpur police station against Ms Ghosh, former officer-in-charge of the Khargapur police station Raj Shekhar Pyne, the then sub-inspector Ranjit Ghosh and former assistant of Ms Ghosh: Sujit Mondal, also a cop, following a complaint by Yunus Mondal, the cow-trader from Basirhat in North 24 Parganas.

He alleged, “On September 16 in 2016 I gave Rs 45 lakhs in cash to my elder brother and an aide of mine for business related payment. They were travelling in a car early in the day. Their car however met with an accident on the National Highway 6 near Sadapur police outpost in Kharagpur of West Midnapore. Finding the money in the car the police looted it. My aide was booked in a case also.”

Mr Mondal claimed, “Later, when I visited the Kharagpur police station repeatedly to get my money back, I was told by the cops that the money was in the custody of Ms Ghosh who was then the superintendent of police (West Midnapore). I requested her to return the money to me. But she did not. I later complained to the state director general of police and home department.”

He elaborated, “To my shock, I started facing pressure and threats which forced me to move the Calcutta high court against Ms Ghosh who later gave me the offer of an out-of-court settlement and offered to pay Rs 20 lakhs, a part of the total amount, on the pretext of returning the money. I agreed and withdrew the case. But when I demanded my money the back, I was told the offer was withdrawn.”

Mr Mondal added that he filed a case at the Midnapore Court later against Ms Ghosh and three other cops. According to sources, the CID may take over this case also. During the day M V Raju, husband of Ms Ghosh, could not appear at the Bhawani Bhavan as he has been admitted to a private hospital with illness. His lawyers visited the state detective agency’s headquarters and intimated the officers about his health condition.

At around 2 pm, it brought Ram Mangal Singh, the arrested caretaker of Ms Ghosh, to the ex-IPS officer’s residence at Madurdaha off EM Bypass where he worked earlier.

He was asked if more cash were stashed there, sources revealed. On Sunday CID sources claimed of recovery of Rs 2.40 crores in cash from there.

On the probe against Ms Ghosh, BJP leader Mukul Roy alleged, “Were the crores of money kept there in a staged way or did it belong to anyone at all? Why only Ms Ghosh... whoever helped the Trinamul Congress once are being implicated now. This has become the politics of the Trinamul now.”