A Trinamool councillor was arrested in Regent Park on charges of molestation. The arrest of Biswajit Mondal, councillor of Ward 114 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, takes the number of party councillors arrested in the past month to more than half a dozen.
Mondal was arrested on Thursday morning following a molestation complaint filed by a woman from Purba Putiary.
According to the complaint, Mondal had allegedly wrongfully restrained and assaulted her near Gangapuri School in Purba Putiary in March 2024, and used abusive language and threatened her with dire consequences on May 9 this year. The woman lodged a fresh complaint on June 1.
“Acting on the complaints, Mondal has been arrested,” said Kolkata Police joint commissioner of police (crime) Soma Das Mitra.
Mondal has been booked under charges of wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt, using words and gestures to insult the modesty of a woman and aggravated criminal intimidation, the police said.
Mondal’s arrest came hours after the arrest of Trinamool councillor Mahesh Kumar Sharma in Burrabazar and Arijit Das Thakur in Garfa. Both were charged with extortion.
On Thursday, Mondal was produced before the Alipore court and Sharma was produced before Bankshall court.
Sources in the police said the “momentum” in making arrests came after all police units were instructed to dig out old cases and complaints of extortion, cut money and offences against women that were either not formally registered or not properly probed.