E-Paper
ED arrests Kolkata DCP Santanu Sinha Biswas in alleged land deal case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) have arrested Kolkata Police deputy commissioner (DC) Shantanu Sinha Biswas on Thursday night
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) have arrested Kolkata Police deputy commissioner (DC) Shantanu Sinha Biswas on Thursday night after a 10-hour grilling in connection with alleged multi-crore land transactions that surfaced weeks before the recent assembly polls, officials said.
“Sinha Biswas was summoned five times since mid-April but did not report to the ED office at Salt Lake. He was arrested after he refused to divulge the source of huge monetary transactions and the details of the properties he owns,” an ED official said, requesting anonymity.
The ED suspects that Biswas is linked to city-based real estate businessman Joy S Kamdar, who was arrested in April, and Biswajit Poddar, an alleged land grabber and extortionist with political connections.
Kamdar’s arrest followed a 20-hour ED search operation at the residence of Sinha Biswas, who was entrusted with then chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s security at that time.
While Kamdar is in police custody, Poddar is absconding and a lookout notice has been issued in his name.
After Kamdar’s arrest, deputy solicitor general Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi, who represented the ED, told Kolkata’s Bankshall court that chats found on two of his personal phones pointed to huge hawala transactions.
Poddar came under the ED’s scanner after a gang war in the Kankulia Road area in south Kolkata’s Gariahat in February. On April 1, ED teams conducted search operations at Poddar’s home.
