The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday searched six places in Kolkata and North 24 Parganas district in connection with a chit fund case from 2018. Among those whose residences were searched were Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Bijpur MLA Subodh Adhikari who is a strongman in the Barrackpore-Halisahar industrial belt in North 24 Parganas, and his brother and Kanchrapara mayor Kamal Adhikari.
The raids took place a couple of days after the CBI arrested TMC leader and Halisahar civic body chairperson Raju Sahani in connection with its probe Sanmarg chit fund scam. Hailsahar is a part of the Bijpur Assembly constituency and Sahani, according to CBI officials, is Adhikari’s close associate.
Adhikari is the latest TMC leader to be raided by a central agency in a case of alleged corruption. Since the last week of July, party functionaries such as Partha Chatterjee (since then expelled) and Anubrata Mondal have been arrested while the Enforcement Directorate has questioned Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Central agency investigators reached Adhikari’s apartment on Halishahar station road on Sunday morning and simultaneously conducted searches at his flats in Paikpara and Dakshindari in Kolkata, and on BT Road on the Capital’s outskirts. They also searched Kamal’s home. Sources in the CBI said the MLA and his family members were questioned for more than six hours.
Adhikari’s wife Rinku said the CBI confiscated several important files, including bank and life insurance documents from the Paikpara flat, where the search was conducted from 9 am to 3 pm. Asked about her husband’s alleged links to Sahani, Rinku said, “Both of them are Halisahar residents. If you live in one place, there will be some friendship. Apart from that, there were party-related communications and nothing else.”
Kamal Adhikari said, “I do not know about Mr Sahani’s monetary dealings or the chit fund company. There is a political conspiracy against me and my party. The raids did not yield anything. I am ready to cooperate with the investigation.”
The CBI has alleged that Sahani was a board member of Bardhaman-based chit fund firm Sanmarg Cooperative that cheated investors almost a decade ago. A CBI court in Asansol on Saturday remanded Sahani to the agency’s custody for five days.
The agency has alleged that approximately Rs 20 lakh was transferred from the company to the account of a firm that Sahani owns. The TMC leader has claimed that the Rs 80 lakh recovered from his house does not belong to him.
The trustees of Sanmarg are accused of closing the firm’s branches ad fleeing after failing to repay investors the maturity amount and duping them. Sanmarg’s chairman Soumyarup Bhowmik is currently absconding.
According to the CBI, Sahani harboured Bhowmik in his home in 2018-’19 and had also helped him open a bank account in 2018 where Rs 75 lakh was deposited following the sale of a Sanmarg property. The money was then allegedly routed to an account linked to Sahani.
Adhikari, a former Mukul aide
Now under CBI scanner, Adhikari was once a close aide of Mukul Roy, a TMC veteran who controlled the Barrackpore-Halisahar-Kanchrapara industrial belt after the end of Left rule. Sources in the TMC said Adhikari was one of Roy’s enforcers at the time.
In 2019, Roy defected to the BJP and this was followed by Arjun Singh’s move to the Opposition party. These defections created a leadership vacuum in the TMC in the region. Current state Irrigation Minister Partha Bhowmik took over the party leadership of the industrial belt with Adhikari’s help.
Last year, the TMC strongman scuppered the plans of his former boss to get his son Shubhrangshu elected from Bijpur and became a first-time MLA. However, after the Assembly election results were announced, both Roy and Shubhrangshu returned to TMC. Now, even Arjun Singh is back in the ruling party.
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