South Dinajpur police have arrested two Trinamool Congress leaders and two aides of one of the leaders over the past 24 hours in connection with various cases.
The arrested leaders are Kamal Sarkar, a former chairman of the Buniadpur municipality, and Kaushik Mahato, a zilla parishad member of Hili block. Both are known to be close to former minister Biplab Mitra. Mahato’s aides Dibakar Das and Masudur Rahman have also been arrested.
Sarkar was arrested on Thursday afternoon for extorting money from a local businessman.
Sources said businessman Upendranath Sarkar filed a complaint against Sarkar with Bansihari police station on Wednesday, alleging that the Trinamool leader and his associates forced him to pay money after he sold a parcel of land.
“About a year ago, I sold the land. Soon after, associates of Kamal Sarkar, who was the civic chairman then, demanded ₹25 lakh from me and threatened to kill me and my son. Out of fear, I paid ₹14 lakh to them and later paid another ₹1 lakh to Kamal Sarkar,” said Upendranath.
After the extortion, he had filed a police complaint but no steps were taken against Sarkar then, he alleged. After the change of guard in the state, he filed another complaint, and this time the police arrested the Trinamool leader.
Later in the day, the ex-chairman was produced at a local court in Gangarampur. The court heard the case and ordered him to be sent to three days in police custody.
On Wednesday, the police arrested zilla parishad member Mahato, who is from Trimohini under the Hili block, along with his two associates Das and Rahman, from Barasat. The trio were arrested on charges of corruption and extortion.
Swarup Choudhury, the district BJP president, said corruption and extortion had become widespread under Trinamool’s regime.
“Now, the law is taking its course, and all these people will face legal consequences for their illegal activities,” he said.
Former minister Mitra, a veteran Trinamool leader of South Dinajpur, claimed the arrests were politically motivated. “Trinamool leaders are being implicated in old cases due to political vendetta. The party will seek justice,” he said.
Police officers confirmed all four arrests. “The arrests were made based on specific complaints. Probe is on,” said an officer.