A midnight raid at the house of a woman said to be associated with former Bidhannagar mayor Sabyasachi Dutta yielded 3kg of gold jewellery, police said
on Tuesday.
Dutta, who was arrested earlier this month, accompanied the cops during the search.
Hours later, 3kg of gold ornaments and biscuits tumbled out of Dutta’s bank locker in Salt Lake.
According to the police, the total haul of 6kg of gold and around 1.3kg of silver coins was worth over ₹4 crore.
The police said the jewellery recovered from the residence of Tina Bhowmick Saha, a Trinamool Congress zilla parishad member in Nadia district, was suspected to have been purchased with the “extortion money” allegedly collected by Dutta. Saha, the officials said, was a close aide of Dutta.
The police are “in the process of tallying” the gold ornaments with the bills and receipts of gold earlier found in Dutta’s place.
Saha’s social media page introduces her as “Nadia Zilla Parishad member ZP-3 Tehatta Assembly”. She could not be reached for comment. A text message did not fetch a response till Tuesday night.
Sources said Saha joined the Trinamool in 2016 and has been a Nadia zilla parishad member for two consecutive terms.
Tina Bhowmick Saha Facebook/Tina Bhowmik Saha
Party sources said she “developed close political ties” with Dutta around a year before the 2021 Assembly elections.
The police said no formal charges had been drawn up against her till Tuesday evening.
“We will examine her to see if she had any involvement,” a senior officer of the Bidhannagar police commissionerate said.
Following the jewellery haul, additional charges have been brought against the former Barasat MLA under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Dutta was arrested earlier this month on extortion charges and has been in police custody. The police said Dutta’s statements led to the search and seizures on Tuesday. Earlier, the police had found purchase receipts for gold jewellery weighing around 76kg from his apartments.
“Earlier, he was charged only with extortion from a businessman. Now, the recovery of gold has brought additional charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Hence, the case would be heard in a separate court now,” special public prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee said on Tuesday evening.
Dutta’s 14-day remand ended on Tuesday. He was produced before the court and sent to a day’s judicial custody.
Dutta’s case would be heard again on Wednesday in a court that hears allegations of corruption against public representatives.
Four years ago, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing alleged irregularities in school recruitment, had found several kilos of gold and over ₹50 crore in cash from the house of Arpita Mukherjee, an associate of then education minister Partha Chatterjee.
Mukherjee had failed to explain the source of the valuables, and the agency linked them to proceeds generated through Chatterjee’s corruption. Mukherjee and Chatterjee are out on bail now. Both CBI and ED have chargesheeted them.