E-Paper
Bengal police raids MP Arjun Singh’s home; BJP calls it vendetta
The BJP leader said he has been a target of the ruling party, the TMC.
The West Bengal police on Wednesday afternoon searched the residence of Arjun Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district, in connection with an old case of financial irregularity.
A police officer who is part of the investigation and did not want to be named said, “The search was held in connection with alleged financial irregularities to the tune of ₹11 crore involving the Bhatpara municipality and a local cooperative bank.”
Singh was chairman of the Bhatpara municipality from 2010 to 2019. He left the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the BJP in March 2019. He also headed a local cooperative bank’s board.
Singh, who was present at home, said, “This is not the first time the police came to raid my house. In the past they did not have any order from court and were not allowed to enter. Today they came with a court order. I am not surprised because it is well known that I am a target of the TMC.”
“The Barrackpore police have so far named me in 93 cases. For Mamata Banerjee, I was clean and pure as long as I was in the TMC. Now, that I am in the BJP, I am involved in all sorts of crimes,” said Singh.
Recognised as a heavyweight leader, Singh was a four-time legislator of the TMC from Bhatpara before he joined the BJP and defeated TMC’s sitting Barrackpore MP Dinesh Trivedi in 2019. The election was marked by violence which continues intermittently in the region. Singh’s son and brother-in-law are also sitting legislators of the BJP.
Also Read: Covid centre built by Congress, CPI (M) in Bengal; BJP has a question for TMC
Singh alleged that the police team broke into the house of one of his relatives before coming to his home. “That house is located around 500 metres away from mine. It is under a lock and a key for six months as the family is now in another state. I told the officers that we will move court for this as they did not have any written order to search the premises.”
Barrackpore police commissioner Manoj Verma could not be contacted.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh condemned the incident and said Singh was being singled out.
“The TMC is being vindictive. The sole job of the Barrackpore police is to target and implicate Arjun Singh,” said Ghosh.
On July 17, a police team went to Singh’s home at Bhatpara in search of one of his nephews but was denied entry by Central paramilitary force personnel in charge of Singh’s security as the police officers did not have a search warrant.
