Daspur extortion case: Bengal CID seizes Rs 2 cr in fresh raids

West Bengal CID on Wednesday raided a south Kolkata flat owned by an acquaintance of former West Midnapore district police chief Bharati Ghosh's husband in relation to an extortion case and seized cash amounting to Rs 2 crore, a senior CID official said.

The sleuths have already raided houses of several police officers including Ghosh and her husband and arrested four state police officials in the case, reported in West Midnapore district's Daspur earlier this month.

"CID team held searches at a flat in Basdroni, owned by an acquaintanc of M.A.V. Raju, husband of a retired IPS officer and seized approximately Rs 2 crore from there. The key of the flat was reportedly with Raju," Deputy Inspector General, CID, Nishad Parvez said in a release.

"The search was made observing all legal formalities. All CID personnel were subjected to their own body-search before entering or leaving the flat. The flat owner was present throughout," he said.

The officer also claimed that the cash was kept in the flat by former IPS officer Ghosh's security guard Sujit Mondal, who along with Ghosh has been absconding since the charges of extortion came into the fore.

CID has issued arrest warrant against both Ghosh and his security guard on February 10 and sent teams outside the state to look for them.

The CID raids started following a case of extortion and criminal conspiracy lodged in West Midnapore district's Daspur on February 1 after gold trader Chandan Majhi complained against some police officers in the district thought to be close to former SP Ghosh.

The sleuths had earlier seized more than Rs. 2.4 crore in cash, several important government documents and an array of sealed liquor bottles while raiding a number of flats in an apartment in Kolkata's Madurdaha, suspected to be owned by Ghosh while large amount of unaccounted cash was also seized from the house of several police officers named in the FIR.

Police officer Rajsekhar Pain, who also worked under the former SP, was arrested by the CID in relation to misappropriation of Rs 45 lakh from a local businessman.

Ghosh, once a favourite of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, reportedly fell from grace and sought voluntary retirement after being transferred to a less significant post as commandant of the State Armed Police's Third Battalion. Her application was accepted.

--IANS

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