Till Dipendu Dutta (50), landed in the police net on Thursday afternoon, many people in Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district were convinced that he was a close aide of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and his son was working for election strategist Prashant Kishor who has been hired by the Trinamool Congress chief.
Acting on complaints lodged by many people, including two TMC leaders, the district police tracked down Dutta and arrested him in Siliguri. He is a resident of the Pabitra Para area in Jalpaiguri town about 600 km away from Kolkata.
Biswasroy Sarkar, inspector-in-charge of the Jalpaiguri Kotwali police station, said, “Dutta has allegedly cheated many people in the last two years. We have received written complaints against him.”
According to the allegations, Dutta used to flaunt his ‘close relationship’ with the chief minister and extract money from his victims who included senior TMC leaders in Siliguri, Nantu Paul and Madan Bhattacharya. The list of his victims is quite long, police officers said.
Dutta also took money claiming that his son was working for Prashant Kishor. In exchange, he used to promise all kinds of favours.
“Dutta used to visit my Siliguri home and claim that he shared a good rapport with the chief minister. He promised to help me install an elevator in my house,” said Paul who himself is the councillor of Ward 12 in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation and considered an influential leader. “I gave him ₹3000 three months ago, but got suspicious when he started calling me almost every day,” said Paul.
{{/usCountry}}“Dutta used to visit my Siliguri home and claim that he shared a good rapport with the chief minister. He promised to help me install an elevator in my house,” said Paul who himself is the councillor of Ward 12 in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation and considered an influential leader. “I gave him ₹3000 three months ago, but got suspicious when he started calling me almost every day,” said Paul.
{{/usCountry}}Madan Bhattacharya, a TMC Darjeeling district committee member, has a different story to tell. “Dutta used to come to me with his son. He used to seek financial help saying that his son is suffering from blood cancer,” said Bhattacharya.
“Dutta and his son used to click selfies with political leaders and post those on Facebook to influence people,” said Bhattacharya. Police are verifying these charges.
Abhishek Modi, superintendent of police, Jalpaiguri, said, “We are conducting an investigation.”