Kolkata, May 28: West Bengal police revealed on Thursday that they uncovered a staggering cash amount from the fields of Dipankar Bhattacharya, the chairman of the Trinamool Congress-controlled Baduria Municipality in North 24 Parganas district. The authorities discovered four trolley bags and one sack filled with cash during their search.
Dipankar Bhattacharya was arrested last Monday at a hotel on corruption charges. A police official stated, “The cash recovered from the trolley bags and sack was counted multiple times in the presence of bank officials. Ultimately, the total amount recovered reached ₹2.24 crore.”
Notably, when Bhattacharya was apprehended at a hotel in Baduria, ₹80 lakh in cash was found in his possession. This brings the total cash seized from him to ₹3.04 crore.
On Tuesday, Bhattacharya was presented in a district court, where he was remanded to police custody. Sources within the state police revealed that during questioning, Bhattacharya admitted to hiding more cash in his fields.
Following this admission, police took him to the site on Wednesday afternoon. Upon digging, they recovered four trolley bags and one sack, all filled with cash.
According to police, Bhattacharya has faced allegations of corruption for an extended period. Previously, authorities had also seized around 4,000 government tarpaulins from a local Trinamool Congress office and Bhattacharya’s garden home in Baduria.
Two separate complaints were filed against the Baduria Municipality chairman at the police station—one by the CPI(M) and another by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These complaints led to Bhattacharya’s arrest on Monday night, along with the recovery of ₹80 lakh in cash.
Questions are now being raised about how Bhattacharya accumulated such a large sum of cash. He currently faces two corruption charges: one for allegedly taking commissions in the ‘Banglar Bari’ housing scheme and another for reportedly extorting money from local residents, particularly traders.
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