Sushanta Ghosh, a former Trinamool councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s Ward 108, was arrested in Puri, Odisha, on Wednesday.
Ghosh was arrested in connection with allegations that he extorted several crores of rupees from hawkers by allowing them to set up stalls near EM Bypass, police said.
A former chairman of KMC’s Borough XII, Ghosh was Mamata Banerjee’s chief election agent in the 2021 Assembly polls in Nandigram, where she lost to Suvendu Adhikari. Ward 108, which he represented, included parts of Anandapur, VIP Nagar and Chowbaga off the EM Bypass.
Police had been looking for Ghosh since May 29, when a formal complaint was lodged against him at Anandapur police station.
According to the complaint filed by a hawkers’ association near the EM Bypass-Ruby crossing, around ₹3 crore was allegedly collected from hawkers. They alleged that vendors were charged ₹3 lakh to ₹4 lakh each for permission to set up stalls along the stretch connecting Urbana housing complex and the Ruby crossing.
On Wednesday afternoon, officers traced him to a hideout in Puri and arrested him. “Ghosh is named in an FIR in a criminal case and has been absconding for some time. We hope to produce him before a court in Calcutta on Thursday,” a Kolkata Police officer said.
State urban development minister Agnimitra Paul said: “No one connected with any form of corruption will be spared, and Sushanta Ghosh can’t be an exception.”