Bengal police seize ₹1.02 crore from party office in land grab case involving Abhishek Banerjee aide

West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas police on Wednesday seized cash worth over ₹1.02 crore from a political party’s office while investigating a land grab case in which Sumit Roy, private assistant to Mamata All India Trinamool Congress (MAITC) leader Abhishek Banerjee, is in custody as a prime suspect, police said.

“Police searched a political party’s office in the Sarisha area following statements Sumit Roy made and seized more than ₹1.02 crore,” the district’s additional police superintendent Abhishek Majumdar said.

“Which party ran the office and what role Sumit Roy played are both under investigation,” Majumdar added.

The police, however, did not name the party whose office was searched, though the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came under scrutiny since it occupied a rented office at that address until May this year.

Sumit Roy was arrested on September 10 by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police in connection with the land grab case after the Supreme Court denied him anticipatory bail.

The Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool alleged that the money was planted to malign the party. It said the rented office from which the police claimed to have seized the money was ransacked and vandalised on May 21, days after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the state assembly polls.

The MAITC shared a copy of the official police complaint it lodged on May 23.

The letter to the Diamond Harbour police station – a copy of which HT saw – mentioned that the premises were handed back to the landlord after the ransacking on May 21.

Arka Nag, one of the MAITC’s lawyers, said, “Police have said that the cash was seized from that party office. We have found that Sumit Roy was interrogated till 3 am today (Wednesday) and taken to a place where he was asked to enter a building**,** which he refused. He was then taken to the Diamond Harbour Women’s University building and brought back to the first building. Roy found the police counting some money. Roy was thereafter taken to the Diamond Harbour police station where, too, he found the police counting money.”

“When Roy was taken to the Women’s University building, the policemen told him that he would be killed in an encounter if he did not cooperate. We apprehend an attack on Roy. We will move court on this issue,” Nag said.

“Planting any sort of evidence is a crime. We urge the police to stay within the ambit of the law,” Nag added.

The South 24 Parganas police did not make any statement on Nag’s allegation.