E-Paper
Bengal police initiate fresh probes against Suvendu Adhikari’s brothers
The cases against Dibyendu and Soumendu Adhikari were registered on the basis of a complaint by the ruling Trinamool’s Subal Manna, who was made the municipality chairman after the civic polls in February-March this year, officials said.
The West Bengal Police have initiated probes against both brothers of Suvendu Adhikari, leader of opposition in the state assembly, over alleged irregularities in the functioning of Kanthi municipal corporation in East Midnapore district before 2021, when the civic body was controlled by the family, officials said.
Of the two brothers – Dibyendu Adhikari and Soumendu Adhikari, Dibyendu and their father, Sisir Adhikari, are Lok Sabha members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The cases against the Adhikaris were registered on the basis of a complaint by TMC’s Subal Manna, who was made the municipality chairman after the civic polls in February-March this year, officials said.
The cases pertain to the installation of street lights and setting up of shops on part of a land allotted for a modern crematorium equipped with an electric furnace, in Kanthi, the hometown of the Adhikaris, they added.
The probe against the Adhikari’s brothers came after one Gopal Singh, who allegedly worked as a driver for Soumendu, Suvendu’s youngest brother and former chairman of the municipality, was arrested along with Ashok Shaw, a former employee of a building contractor, on Monday in an alleged corruption case involving allotment of stalls to shopkeepers on a land earmarked for the crematorium, officials said.
Singh and Shaw are both residents of Kanthi. A former engineer of the municipality was arrested on Wednesday, officials said.
While Soumendu could not be contacted for a comment on the matter, a friend of the family said he had moved Calcutta high court after the complaint was lodged and was granted immunity from arrest till July 13.
Dibyendu, MP from Tamluk in East Midnapore, and his wife Sutapa were summoned by the police on Monday. None of them, however, responded to the summons.
“I am still a TMC MP and my wife is a homemaker. We have full faith in THE Calcutta high court,” Dibyendu, who served as councillor of Kanthi municipality and also the local legislator before becoming an MP in 2016, told HT.
Suvendu, who was a cabinet minister in the TMC government from 2016 to 2020, joined the BJP in December 2020, months ahead of the assembly elections.
Soumendu followed suit and joined the BJP in 2021.
Reacting to the police cases, Sisir Adhikari, TMC Lok Sabha member from Kanthi constituency, said: “Those who control the police department can always use it to create pressure.”
Samik Bhattacharya, chief spokesperson of Bengal BJP, said: “This is the worst example of vindictive politics by the TMC.”
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said law is taking its own course in the matter.
“It is the BJP that targets specific people and uses central probe agencies against them. The Bengal Police did not target the Adhikaris intentionally. Their names came up during the investigations,” he said.
The Adhikari brothers are not just facing the above cases. In 2021, a case was registered against Suvendu and Soumendu for alleged theft of relief material meant for flood victims. The duo had moved the high court, alleging harassment by police.
The state government is also probing the operations of several cooperative banks in which Suvendu was member of the managing boards. In June last year, the government started the process of removing him from the boards of several cooperative banks in East Midnapore.
Also, the state criminal investigation department (CID) is probing the death of one of Suvendu’s bodyguards, Shubhabrata Chakraborty, who died of gunshot injuries in 2018.
The civic elections earlier this year ended the Adhikari family’s control over Kanthi municipality. Sisir Adhikari served as its chairman for around 20 years (even when he was in the Congress) before stepping down in 2005.
Suvendu held the post from 2006 to 2010. Soumendu succeeded him and controlled the civic body till 2020.
