Former West Bengal Ministers Brother Arrested for Extortion Charges

Kolkata, June 5: Swaroop Biswas, brother of former West Bengal Sports Minister Arup Biswas, was taken into custody by Kolkata police on Thursday night. He is accused in a vandalism case linked to Lionel Messi’s GOAT India tour, which occurred at the Salt Lake Youth Bharti Kridangan last year.

According to sources from the state police, this arrest is related to allegations of extortion from technicians in the Bengali film industry.

Sources familiar with the situation revealed that Swaroop was arrested following a complaint filed by a female makeup artist associated with an organization working in Bengali film, television, and OTT production in Tollygunge, located in the southern outskirts of Kolkata.

Swaroop Biswas’s elder brother, Arup Biswas, represented Tollygunge in the West Bengal Assembly and served as a four-term MLA for the Trinamool Congress from 2006 to 2026.

The complainant alleged that Swaroop had conspired to prevent her from receiving any makeup-related work over the past two years. She also claimed that during his tenure as the Minister of Sports and Energy under the previous West Bengal government led by Mamata Banerjee, Swaroop threatened her multiple times.

In her complaint, she further alleged that Swaroop extorted several lakhs of rupees from her through threats and intimidation. Based on her complaint, the New Alipur police station initiated an investigation, leading to his arrest on Thursday night.

After the Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal, Swaroop Biswas served for a long time as the president of the Eastern India Cinema Technicians and Workers Union in Kolkata.

He has faced long-standing allegations of extortion from members of his organization. Kolkata police detained him, and he is expected to be presented in a lower court in Kolkata on Friday.

Arup Biswas, a former state energy minister in Mamata Banerjee’s previous cabinet, was a four-time MLA for the Trinamool Congress from the Tollygunge constituency in South 24 Parganas district.

However, in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, he was defeated by BJP candidate Papia Dutta by a margin of over 6,000 votes.